


A Gallaghercest Advent Calendar

by OnTheWrongSideOfTheBed



Category: Oasis (Band)
Genre: M/M, advent calendar fic
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-12-03
Updated: 2020-12-26
Packaged: 2021-03-10 04:15:05
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 25
Words: 25,438
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27858942
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/OnTheWrongSideOfTheBed/pseuds/OnTheWrongSideOfTheBed
Summary: Well, as the title says...
Relationships: Liam Gallagher/Noel Gallagher
Comments: 159
Kudos: 50
Collections: BritPop Advent Calendar 2020





	1. Christmas Tree

**Author's Note:**

> A little late start, but it looks like I'll be able to have a few words every day for the rest of advent.  
> Potential warnings or ratings will be put in the notes of the respective chapter.

“So you didn’t even get a fucking Christmas tree? Christ, what are you, the grinch?”, Liam asks angrily. He’s stood in the middle of Noel’s living room in his new flat in London and keeps turning like he’s going to find a little tree hidden in a corner, because not even Noel can be that insane and not buy at least one small Christmas tree.    
  
“No, I didn’t buy one, and I’m not going to either. This is my flat and I’m not having any of that Christmas bullshit, alright?”, Noel replies from where he’s leaning in the door frame. He’s not angry, yet, but Liam can feel the energy crackling around him. He’s really bent on being his own man now, doing his own thing and all that. And that’s alright with Liam if he just gets him a Christmas tree. How else is he supposed to get in the mood?   
  
“Yeah, but it’s Christmas”, he says like that’s going to do anything. “Just get a fucking tree, Noel, don’t be a cunt.” He’s standing in front of Noel now and looking at him, going for the biggest eyes and most eyelashes-fluttering he can get away with without Noel just hitting him over the head for being stupid. It convinces him most of the time, if it’s not touching one of Noel’s absolute iron principles, that is, and it seems to melt a little of the ice around Noel’s cold Christmas-hating heart.   
  
“Don’t even have decoration, kid. Do you want me to just put a naked tree in my flat?”, he asks and tilts his head in a way that means Liam could maybe get him where he wants him. He grins brightly. “Thought you wouldn’t have any”, he replies, “that’s why I got mam to give me some of hers. Got it all in the little bag there.” He points over at a crumpled but quite big bag that he’s put on Noel’s sofa when he came in.    
  
“Alright, you came prepared, little cunt”, Noel says but his tone isn’t as sharp anymore. He walks over and takes a look at the bag, rummages through its contents. He pulls out some lametta and comes back to Liam, lays some on his head and winds the rest around his neck. “Why aren’t you gonna be my Christmas tree, hm? Excellent opportunity to light you on fire”, he says, but his eyes are soft and almost fond now and he leans in to place a kiss right on the corner of Liam’s mouth.


	2. Christmas Cookies

“I’m not baking Christmas cookies with you”, Liam says, “just pay someone. What are you taking all the songwriting credit for if you’re not going to use it?”    
  
“Shut up. I can’t, you dickhead”, Noel says and it’d probably be a bit more intimidating if he weren’t half covered in flour. “Mam said she’ll have me if I turn up with anything I didn’t sweat for myself. And clearly, since she didn’t tell you the same, she wants you to help me. So tie your hair up, get an apron, I don’t fucking care, just get in here and help me.”   
  
He sounds more manic than pissed off and Liam holds his hands up in mock surrender. “Alright, alright”, he says and Noel can hear he thinks he’s absolutely bonkers. “Don’t get your knickers in a twist, I’m helping you, yeah?” He goes over to take the flour out of Noel’s hands.   
  
“What’re you doing with that?”, he asks and is about to pour the entire bag into the bowl where Noel’s already put together a little mix of eggs and sugar and flour. It definitely can’t take more, but Liam’s already tipped the bag at a dangerous angle and Noel nearly jumps over to him to rip it out of his hands.   
  
“Fucking give that here”, he hisses, then shoves a spoon into Liam’s hand instead. “You can mix that, alright?” He could give him a mixer, but he’s not feeling like it, Liam doesn’t deserve it. And Noel likes the way little drops of sweat start to form at his temples whenever he has to do a little work.   
  
To his surprise Liam takes the spoon without any complaining or insults, just starts to drag it through the mass that vaguely resembles dough and drops into this concentrated trance he goes in when he really wants to do right by something. It’s endearing, Noel can admit that, and he would give him the mixer now if Liam didn’t look so cute doing it like this.   
  
He comes up behind him and peeks over his shoulder, lets his warm breath blow over Liam’s neck. There’s space by Liam’s side where he could stand to inspect his work, but there his lips wouldn’t brush against the shell of Liam’s ear when he leans in to say, “doing well, Liam. Maybe you deserve a little reward when you’re done, yeah?”


	3. Christmas Shopping

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> First paragraph contains mature content.

“You should get me a Christmas present. I deserve it, don’t I, still putting up with your ugly mug”, Liam says after he’s wiped Noel’s come off his face. He doesn’t get it all off, but Noel’s too exhausted to say anything when Liam comes up and rubs his face against Noel’s before he dips down to kiss some of Noel’s taste back inside him. He’s good and lets Noel float around in his content post-orgasmic haze for longer than usual, and maybe that’s why Noel now finds himself in this strange little shop full of glittering and twirly, corny things with Liam by his side excitedly rummaging through some stuff that consists of entirely too much gold.

Because like, he had agreed that maybe Liam deserves a Christmas present, but he’d told him he had to pick it out himself, Noel has no time to play guessing games what his insane little brother would maybe enjoy. It’s a bit of a stupid idea, Noel realises now, he can only pray that all photographers in London are collectively on holiday because he doesn’t fancy going to prison for beating up someone who took a picture of him helping Liam carry an armful of absurd kitsch around.

“Have you finally found something?”, he asks exasperatedly and jerks Liam out of his own personal gold rush. His eyes are wide and sparkling with excitement when he holds up a weird little lamp that looks like it was bathed in jewels and then not dried off properly. That’s probably actually what happened, because this little shop seems to be equally as expensive as it is insane-looking. Not that Noel should have expected anything else from something Liam calls his favourite place to be right after the pub and the stage and his house and then sometimes Noel’s bed.

“‘s that it, you want that?”, Noel asks and tries not to sound too incredulous, although his efforts don’t seem to be that necessary, Liam’s still busy greedily looking the lamp up and down. “Reckon that’ll look dead cool in the living room”, he says and honestly, Noel doesn’t know how he can go on about being Rock ‘n’ Roll for hours and then say shit like that. He doesn’t say it, though, because if you’re buying something as a Christmas present you’d better not mouth off about it if you want to get some credit for it.

“Right”, Noel says instead, “do you want me to buy it for you?” And the way that makes Liam’s eyes sparkle even more almost makes Noel think that maybe this wasn’t such a bad idea after all. He feels Liam’s eyes on him as he pays and lets the ridiculous lamp get wrapped in fancy paper and put in a bag with extra decorations inside.

“You’re only getting it on Christmas, though”, he tells Liam when they step outside again and demonstratively holds the bag where Liam can’t reach it. “I’m paying, I decide when you get your Christmas present.”


	4. Wrapping

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Mature

It’s three weeks until Christmas and Noel is home for a rare day back in their old room, on Liam’s bed. They’re both high but also a little down, because Liam realised that this is going to be the first Christmas they won’t spend together, and when Noel’s high he actually gets a bit sympathetic and will share a few of Liam’s feelings.

He has to be with Louise on Christmas now and won’t be there to awkwardly open his presents and then watch Liam open his and laugh at him when he gets a little too excited about them. It’s a fucking tragedy as far as Liam’s concerned and Noel doesn’t seem to be too opposed to this interpretation either, his eyes are huge and sad and his hand rests heavily in Liam’s hair. 

Which is why Liam has to cheer him up. It’s alright when Noel is grumpy and gloomy, but not when he’s sad because of something to do with Liam, that’s unbearable.

“Can still have presents, though, can’t we?”, Liam says therefore and gives Noel a look that he should recognise. And he does, judging by the little glimmer that appears in his eyes. “Yeah?”, he asks, “and what do you want for Christmas, Liam?” He sounds like he has an idea what Liam might want, and then grabs his cock through his trousers like he knows for sure, and well, he is right.

“Want it like a real present, though”, Liam says, “gotta wrap it properly and all.” He sounds dead serious and doesn’t waver when Noel gives him a questioning look. He leans down and fishes for something under his bed, comes up with a roll of wrapping paper. “Got that one to wrap something for mam”, he says, almost a little embarrassed to be caught with Christmas wrapping paper under his bed. Noel just laughs and shrugs, though, and he’s actually moving to wriggle out of his trousers. He must be really high, Liam has already suspected he took a couple more hits than he allowed Liam.

Noel leans back against the headrest after he’s pushed his trousers off the bed and looks way too confident for someone who’s monged to fuck and has his soft dick out lying against his thigh. “Go on then if you insist on having it wrapped right and proper, yeah”, he says and grins at Liam. He spreads his thighs like he’s showing Liam a present he picked out with loving care and gives him an expectant look. So Liam doesn’t hesitate any longer and tears a long stripe off the roll and goes to sit between Noel’s thighs.

He can’t quite believe Noel’s really going along with this, but then again he’s the real weirdo of the family, isn’t he? Of course he’d be into shit like this. His dick is certainly getting hard fast in Liam’s hand as he holds it up to get the paper around it with his other hand. “Careful, don’t fucking cut me”, Noel grumbles when Liam drags the paper close around him, but his breathy voice shows how much he doesn’t really care. His cock even twitches when Liam smoothes the paper around him with both his hands and he puts his own hand over Liam’s to make him squeeze his cock a little tighter.

“Forgot the tape, didn’t you?”, he says and Liam falls a little more in love with the mischievous glint in his eyes. “Right”, he says and then adds because he can read high Noel’s mind like a book, “think my mouth is going to do as wrapping then, yeah?”


	5. Eggnog

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> The amount of recipes I read trying to figure out if eggnog is the same as Eierpunsch or Eierlikör is insane and I'm still not really sure, but I hope this works nonetheless

Noel doesn’t really know why he’s standing in the kitchen with his little brother trying to make eggnog. He’s home on break from touring with the Inspiral Carpets and pretty sure he deserves to just spend the next few days in bed or out getting drunk with his mates, not working hard in the kitchen trying to keep Liam from getting drunk on the rum before they’ve even added it to the rest of what at the moment is really not looking much like what their mam described to Noel.   
  
“Put that down”, he tells Liam exasperatedly and rips the bottle out of his hands to put it down himself. The kid is absolutely unbearable, all over Noel since the minute he's set his first step back into the house. It was kind of flattering for the first day, their mam was amused by Liam’s behaviour and Paul was - not jealous, but annoyed in a way that made Noel feel good. And there’s something about Liam himself of course, he looks… not different necessarily, but like something that’s somehow relevant to Noel’s interests now.   
  
So he didn’t say anything when Liam wouldn’t let him sleep for hours and then tried to get into bed with him and looked through all of Noel’s things to see what interesting stuff he’d brought back home and if maybe there was something for Liam, too. There _ is _ something for Liam, but Noel hasn’t given it to him, yet, because after that first day Liam’s fast become just as annoying as always if not more, and Noel can’t be adding more fuel to the fire by showing Liam that he’s thought about him.   
  
He’s over Liam’s big, long-lashed, pretty eyes staring at him and never leaving him, at the latest now that he has to force an egg out of Liam’s big hand after he’s tried to crack another one open by smashing it against the table with full force. “Just fucking stop, alright? Go outside or something, I’m doing this on my own”, he says and tries to shoulder Liam away, but Liam’s taller than him now and doesn’t let himself be pushed around so easily anymore.   
  
“What? No, I’m helping you”, Liam protests. “You can’t do it without me”, he adds with innocently blinking, almost convincing eyes, but he’s reaching for the bottle of rum again and only stops when Noel grabs his wrist and tugs it away from the bottle.   
  
“Obviously”, Noel says dryly, “imagine having to drink the rum myself so nothing’s left for mam’s eggnog.” He squeezes Liam’s wrist unnecessarily tightly and can feel his fast pulse fluttering under his thumb. He presses down hard on it and suddenly Liam’s breathing goes much slower and heavier, and Noel can feel his eyes boring even more intensely into him. His thumb starts moving on its own, rubs up to the soft beginning of Liam’s palm and draws circles there or maybe shapes, no letters.    
  
L-I-A-M, Noel can definitely read it there in invisible lines on his brother’s palm, and he isn’t sure what he wants it to mean. Because some very insistent part of him seems to think it means something, or maybe that’s just Liam. “Noel”, he says with a really weird voice that sounds almost pleading. His eyes are definitely pleading when Noel looks up from his palm.    
  
His mouth looks pleading, too. It’s opened slightly and really red and looks soft and just wet enough.  _ Wet enough for what _ , a thought somewhere in the back of Noel’s mind says, but it looks like Liam is going to show him. He’s so much closer to Noel’s face suddenly, Noel can feel his breath on his skin and hear it desperately dragging in and out of Liam, and for some reason Noel’s mouth is open, too, now and he wonders how he’d have to tilt his head to…    
  
“Take the fucking rum then, I don’t care”, Noel barks and practically throws Liam’s hand back at him. He goes to look for the cinnamon and to stick his head into the cupboard and try to write impressions of his mam’s spices over the far too fresh memory of Liam’s mouth almost on his.


	6. Mistletoe

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This was supposed to be just about 500 words and accidentally turned into this - so don't get used to the length, the next ones are going to be definitely less than 1k...

Noel would like to beat up the person who decided mistletoes are more than an utterly unnecessary, ridiculous piece of decoration for fucking idiots, and had one hung up right in the doorway where he’s run into Liam. He’s actually been on his way to hide from Liam, so far he’s managed to spend the entire time he’s been at this ludicrous Christmas party without even seeing him, but then he’d heard a voice spewing the exact kind of nonsense he’d expect from Liam and decided it was time to get out of there. Only apparently it hadn’t been Liam, but the person right here, holding out his arm so Noel can’t move away is Liam, and he looks positively delighted at the distraught look on Noel’s face.   
  
“There’s a mistletoe”, Liam says and points upwards. He says it like he expects Noel to do something, like it’s an obvious instruction. It isn’t, though, is it? Mistletoes aren’t for brothers, certainly not for brothers who can’t even be in the same room at a Christmas party together - alright, maybe that’s Noel’s problem, but still. He really doesn’t know what Liam expects him to do. Sure, he’s kissed him before, a quick peck on his mouth when Liam’s sung his part exactly the way Noel wanted him to or when he hadn’t been too annoying and Noel had been in a really good mood. But that doesn’t mean they’re supposed to kiss under a mistletoe, does it?   
  
“What?”, Noel asks annoyedly when Liam still doesn’t move out of the way. He tries to push him away, but then thinks that he better doesn’t touch Liam at all and just keeps staring at him darkly, hoping that his apparently considered frightening energy will work on Liam for once.    
  
Of course it doesn’t. “There’s a mistletoe”, Liam repeats like Noel is stupid. “You’ve gotta kiss me.” He’s all wide eyes, the picture of innocence, but dirty laughter is rising up around them with drunk voices calling  _ yeah, kiss him!  _ and  _ go on, Noel, give him a kiss!  _ cutting through it. It’s exactly the kind of scene Noel expected to arise should he run into Liam, so he really shouldn’t feel this much sour surprise burning in his throat. But it is there and makes it hard work to roll his eyes in a not too aggressive manner at the people drunken-and-high-dumbly staring at him and Liam.   
  
“Can you just move out of the way”, he hisses through his teeth. Today he’s really not in the mood to give people a little sample of the famous Gallagher show, fists and bitter insults and cricket bats and hoarse screaming, so Liam needs to comply before Noel starts to forget himself.   
  
“C’mon, it’s just a kiss, Noel”, Liam says and exaggeratedly puckers his lips. It gets him a round of louder laughter, some people cheer, this is hell and Liam is the devil. Noel gives him a dead-eyed stare and says nothing. Which doesn’t seem to sit well with Liam. “What’s your problem, we’ve done it before, haven’t we?”, he says sharply. He sounds really offended all of a sudden, almost hurt, and when Noel looks up into his eyes there’s this strange, almost childlike confusion staring at him. It’s like he really doesn’t know why Noel doesn’t want to kiss him here in front of this bunch of fucking idiots.    
  
It transports Noel back to different times when this look was followed by Liam’s eyes starting to rapidly fill with tears so they could loudly run over in all-consuming pain because Noel seemed to like his guitar much better than Liam. Or when Noel prefers to spend his time with his girlfriend - just last week Liam had left him speechless with incredulousness when he’d thrown a fit because Noel went to a party with Meg instead of to the pub to get pissed with Liam. He’d almost gotten Noel to stay with him, Noel really isn’t as cold-hearted as he likes to have people believe, and Liam seems to be the person who gets him to do weird things like standing up his girlfriend for his brother the easiest.   
  
In the end he’d gone with Meg, though, because really, how are you going to justify you’d rather give yourself liver damage with your insane younger brother than go to a hip party with your hot girlfriend? Liam hadn’t spoken to him for days and only given in when Noel had quite forcefully invited himself to another piss-up and spent the entire time squished up against Liam’s side with his arm around his shoulder or his hand in his hair. Which is why Noel’s spent the last days leading up to today putting back some necessary distance between them and is definitely not going to kiss Liam in front of all these people now. Enough idiots have made cute comments about Noel wiping beer foam from Liam’s upper lip last week, he’s not giving anyone any more of that.   
  
Though he’s really not in the mood to spend another night in a beer haze with Liam all too soon either, it makes them both weird. He gives Liam a careful look and finds that he has adjusted to Noel’s changing thoughts, there’s a clever look in his eyes now like he’s anticipating something and Noel wants to ruin it by shoving him away and finding Meg to kiss her instead, but what he does is grab the collar of Liam’s shirt.   
  
He hears a woman whistling, he hears a few men laughing, he hears Liam’s breath hitch and his tongue nervously clicking and himself saying, “alright, Liam?” before he’s pulling him down and swallowing his answer from his lips. They’re warm and soft, Noel knows them, he’s already gotten a taste of what being kissed by Liam feels like. He has an idea how Liam likes to move his tongue and from little bits and pieces of memories has a picture of what a proper snog from him feels like, how his mouth will shape against Noel’s.    
  
The cheering and laughing and whatever else two brothers kissing each other will elicit from a drunk and high crowd starts to fade in Noel’s ears when Liam sighs and goes to show Noel how much truth is in his ideas. He’s a really good kisser, he makes Noel’s face tingle and things flutter around in his stomach he hasn’t felt since he was 16 and finally did kiss that boy that had been giving him looks for probably months.    
  
There’s something loud and mighty roaring to life in his stomach when he feels Liam’s hand coming up to cover his cheek and half his ear, there’s a sharp hook in his lower gut and it’s pulling him into Liam, it’s ripping open a red wound of desperation and want, and he wants Liam to put his finger into it. Noel’s hand on Liam’s collar tightens before it slips and catches on Liam’s skin, makes him hiss into Noel’s mouth and stumble forward, push Noel into the doorframe with his body leaning into him.    
  
They’re entangled like lovers, Noel thinks, and he almost laughs at the wave of fear rushing over him. He rolls it off his shoulders because he doesn’t do fear, but then gently pushes Liam away. It’s becoming a bit too much for a show with an audience. Indeed, there’s more whistling and a fair bit of lewd laughter and also a few irritated faces in the sea of hyped up Christmas lunatics.    
  
Noel isn’t quite sure how he’s not just off to disappear in the crowd or how he manages to not punch Liam’s teeth out to make up for what he made Noel do, but a weird sense of calm seems to have followed the fear and holds him warm and still next to Liam, and lets him grin as he flips off those who haven’t yet gone for another line or drink. He doesn’t even get the urge to run when he finally looks up at Liam and sees a dopey grin spread wide across his face, utter bliss.    
  
His eyes lock with Liam’s for a moment and the hook in Noel’s gut becomes burning hot and he fears he might be breathing fire when he opens his mouth to quietly tell Liam, “I’m going upstairs”, before he walks off.


	7. Snowed In

“It’s fucking cold, right?”, Liam says and slides even closer to Noel, “I mean we’re fucking snowed in, aren’t we?” 

They are in fact snowed in, the tour bus had kind of slid off the road in a not really scary but still slightly alarming manner and they’d been informed that it couldn’t get on the road again because of ice or something, and then it’d started to snow and here they are, probably going to die because big piles of uninviting white are stretching for miles seemingly and must prevent even the bravest of souls from getting to them.

Andy and Gem are sitting across from them, busy on their phones or whatever, Noel can’t really be arsed to find out, all he knows is they aren’t sitting huddled closely together trying to save the last bits of body heat they have. Liam doesn’t seem to care about that, though. He’s come even closer and his thigh is pressed up all the way against Noel’s and he’s in the process of winding an arm around him.

“Can you just-”, Noel begins annoyedly and promptly gets interrupted by Liam. “Can I just what?”, he asks, busily pulling Noel closer to him and wriggling around to get comfortable. “Can you just fuck off maybe?”, Noel huffs out, now squished into Liam’s side and held so tightly he’d have to make a fully grown scene to escape. He thinks about digging his fingers into Liam’s soft stomach where he can reach, that’s always been his weak spot and Noel has well sharp fingers. 

Something about the way Liam is breathing warmly on his neck makes him reconsider, though. It has indeed become a little cold, and maybe Liam wasn’t completely wrong about trying to stay warm. Gem and Andy seem to sit a little closer to each other, too, right? So Noel doesn’t try to poke a hole into Liam’s stomach. He doesn’t do anything, really, just keeps sitting with Liam so far in his personal space there’s really no space left at all between them.

It’s quite comfortable, if someone held a gun to his head, Noel would maybe admit that Liam’s body is one of his favourite pillows. And even though no one is threatening his life with any kind of firearm, Noel doesn’t scoot away when Liam presses a wet kiss to his cheek. He likes it, alright? Sue him if he lets his guard down once a tour. 

He lets Liam kiss the corner of his mouth. It’s warm, it’s sweet, and Noel doesn’t even get angry at the amused glance Gem shoots him. He tilts his head to the side just slightly, just a little bit, and somehow kisses Liam back for almost an entire two seconds when Liam eagerly presses his mouth against Noel’s. “Fucking idiot”, Noel says after he pulls away briskly, but he can hear that his own voice is way too soft. He doesn’t really care, though, he’ll be the judge of the benefit of kissing his brother to stay warm on a snowed in tour bus.


	8. Immaculate Conception

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Usually I'm really not one for mpreg but apparently incest can make me see the beauty of it, so without further ado here's exactly that:

“No one is going to believe you’re the new Virgin Mary, Liam”, Noel says and finally stops rubbing his fingers all over his face. It’s started to actually hurt a little. Not as much as Liam’s feet hurt, though, according to him. He’s come to Noel with the good news this morning, apparently he’s expecting the next Messiah. At least that seems to be what he wants to tell the press.   
  
“It’s better than admitting I let you knock me up, is it?”, he’d said, and Noel hasn’t yet come to a conclusion on this thesis.    
  
“Why don’t you just say you’ve got a secret boyfriend or something? I’d say more believable is you went to the bogs with some bloke and came out with a bun in the oven, but if that’s not ladylike enough for you, just go with a boyfriend, alright?”, he says and gives Liam an exasperated look. He could also just stay inside for the next nine months and then pretend he’s knocked up another unfortunate woman, but keeping Liam from running freely over the front pages of just about all the newspapers seems kind of impossible - just as much as making someone believe Liam went immaculate when he could be getting really dirty with somebody.   
  
“Secret boyfriend?”, Liam scoffs, “they’d figure it’s you in the two seconds it’d take you to say ‘it weren’t me.’ Everyone knows you’d fuck me if you could, why don’t you go and tell another reporter how sexy you think I am?” He raises his eyebrows at Noel and God, does pregnancy make you cleverer?   
  
“Shut up”, Noel says, carefully shoving his anger down so Liam doesn’t see he has a point. “That’s bullshit. And what do you mean  _ if I could, _ I think it’s clear that I fucking well  _ can, _ you stupid slag.”   
  
“Alright, alright”, Liam says, now looking a little annoyed as well, even though he’s the fucking problem. “You can. I know you can, you fucking got me up the duff. There, ‘s that better for you?” He sounds like he’s close to giving Noel a slap, and Noel would like to not let it get that far because he isn’t entirely sure if it’s alright to give pregnant people a slap back.    
  
“I don’t fucking care if I can fuck you or not”, he responds snappily, “I’m just not having you proclaiming God of all people impregnated you.” He gives Liam an angry look that he hopes will shut him up, but only gets him a darker look in return. “Are you fucking jealous or what?”, Liam asks with a dangerously strained voice. “Don’t want God to take your credit, you narcissistic cunt?”   
  
He’s wandering around the room in fast circles and if he weren’t swinging his arms in a way that tells Noel how upset he is, it’d feel a bit like waiting for the shark to bite you. Liam starts up again when he’s back in front of Noel, “it’s like, do you want to come out and say ‘yeah, it’s me who’s done it. I knocked him up.’ You want them to know it’s your kid, don’t you?”   
  
He wants to go a lot of steps too far, Noel can see it in his thundery eyes, and he needs to shut him up before he goes somewhere Noel isn’t going to follow. “Don’t be ridiculous”, he says and gets up to at least be kind of even if Liam does decide to give him a slap. He expects Liam to warily back up a little, but instead he steps closer, which makes  _ Noel _ wary at first, but then he just steps a little closer, too, and looks at Liam.   
  
He wants to say something rude, something loud, but his eyes drift lower and like, he  _ knows _ it can’t be yet, but he thinks he catches a glimpse of a light swell under Liam’s jumper. His eyes wander up to Liam’s again.  _ "You _ know it’s my kid, I think that’s enough”, he hears himself say, his voice sounding weirdly raw in his own ears.   
  
It  _ is _ his kid there under the scratchy wool and soft skin, it’s his and it’s inside Liam, himself woven together with Liam like a little picture of them both that Liam keeps warm in his belly. And maybe he should be a little kinder to him, just as not to upset the little heart they’re now sharing and that Liam’s carrying for them.   
  
“I don’t care, alright?”, he says much more softly, “we can figure something out. Or do what you want. It  _ would  _ make good press saying we’ve got the new Messiah, could just go all the way and form a new religion, become cult leaders, yeah? Seems to be a load of money in the business.”   
  
_ "I’m _ becoming a cult leader, you can be my sidekick or something”, Liam says and he’s grinning brightly again, excited like when  _ he _ was a kid and happy Noel had told someone to leave his little brother alone. He’s clearly getting ready for a long sermon on what exactly being a cult leader is going to look like, but Noel takes the last step towards him and puts his hand flat on his tummy. There’s nothing to feel yet, but it shuts Liam up nonetheless. He’s looking down in wonder on Noel’s hand splayed over his jumper and it makes Noel’s heart beat even faster than when Liam first told him this morning.   
  
Almost like in a trance he leans up and kisses Liam, his hand still firmly on his stomach as he pushes his tongue inside Liam’s mouth and curls it around Liam’s, nothing immaculate about that.


	9. Pets

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This is just very, very silly

Okay, so. A reindeer. Maybe not a conventional pet, but Liam isn’t exactly conventional either, is he? And a reindeer’s fucking Rock ‘n’ Roll, big antlers, big snout, possibly rideable - that’ll do Liam. He’s got it off Santa, caught him when he was just about to turn the corner into the next street - his reindeers had become a bit tired, he’d explained, didn’t want to do the whole flying business anymore, so now they would only pull him the normal way on the ground where they could feel their hooves. Liam had understood that, if he were a reindeer, he wouldn’t want to be treading air either, he’d want the real deal, feel the stones he was kicking.   
  
He’d told Santa so, who’d been a little pissed off about his revolutionary stance, but one of his reindeers - not Rudolph, mind, fucking red-nosed weirdo - had looked at Liam and then made to break out of its harness to nose along Liam’s parka and push at him in a way that showed Liam he really ought to free it out of Santa’s slavery. So he’d told Santa,  _ I’m taking that one with me, alright?  _ and Santa had looked like he was about to give Liam a slap with that one really big present blinking seductively at Liam from the back of the sleigh.   
  
(“That for me?”, Liam had asked and then just shrugged carelessly when Santa had shook his head so hard his beard had tickled Liam’s nose. Alright, he didn’t want it anyway. He had Noel waiting at home, which was way better than anything you could wrap in really pretty, brightly glowing wrapping paper - although he’d have to try that maybe later.)   
  
But the reindeer had looked at Santa like it was about to smash up the present with its impressive hooves in front of his eyes before he could even touch it to give Liam a slap with it, and then had turned back around to Liam, blinked its big brown eyes at him and purred? If that was what reindeers did, Liam had really no idea. Santa had sighed then, and kind of just driven off, and here Liam is with his new reindeer - Eleanor, he thinks might be a nice name for her.    
  
He takes her home with him, and she nods when he tells her that Noel might not be as happy with her as Liam is, but he’ll find her a nice, cosy place to stretch her tired legs far enough away from Noel where his cross stares won’t reach her. But Noel will come around, Liam tells her when he finds a little sorrow in her eyes, he will need a little time but before long he’ll love her just as much as Liam does.    
  
They’re like old friends when they reach the house and can laugh together when one of her antlers gets temporarily stuck in the doorframe. Inside, Liam goes to look for Noel and finds him curled up on the sofa with a book in his lap, but his eyes are dreamily wandering from candle to candle on the Christmas tree. He looks like he could be melting into the plushy sofa cushions with how relaxed he seems to be, and maybe that means it won’t even take that long to get him used to Eleanor.   
  
“Noel”, Liam says and grins at him when Noel looks up at him. He still looks relaxed when he sees Liam with his snowy shoes in the living room, and his eyes have such a pretty shimmer that Liam has to go over and bend down to kiss him. Noel tastes like Christmas, has been eating the sweets Liam left on the table next to him then, and Liam really has to see if he ate all of them or if at least the taste of Liam’s favourite ones isn't hiding under his tongue.    
  
Maybe he gets a bit too carried away, maybe he deserves to be pushed over by an insistent snout suddenly digging in his back - he certainly doesn’t mind ending up in Noel’s lap anyway. And Noel’s startled face when he looks up and sees the reason for Liam suddenly sitting on top of him is really funny, too, Liam can only barely hold in his laughter.   
  
“That’s Eleanor”, he explains and patiently looks up at Noel to see what he’s going to say to that, only interrupted by a little wink at Eleanor, they’re mates after all. “Hmm”, Noel makes and it sounds like he’s still deciding whether to scream in surprise or to just go straight to telling Liam off. He’s staring at Eleanor with wide eyes, and out of the corner of his eyes Liam can see that Eleanor is giving him a winning, very polite smile and then even sniffs in a very friendly manner at Noel.   
  
Noel still doesn’t seem to have decided what the right course of action is, so Liam decides to help him a bit. “You can say hello to her. She likes it when you stroke her behind her ears a bit, yeah?” He shows Noel how he means, and Eleanor rubs her snout against him a little in turn, they have a very equal relationship, alright? He pushes her over to Noel a bit so he can try as well, and Eleanor goes easily, holds her head out for Noel and patiently waits until he is done shooting incredulous looks back and forth between her and Liam.   
  
“How the fuck did you find a reindeer?”, Noel finally says when he seems to have gotten over the first shock. He doesn’t sound too upset - well, Liam had thought he’d tasted a fair bit of wine mixed in with the sweets.   
  
“She wanted out from Santa, so I took her with me”, Liam explains and Eleanor sniffs in agreement. “It was the right thing to do, yeah?”, he adds and blinks at Noel the way Eleanor did with him. It seems to work to a similar effect Liam finds, because Noel sighs heavily and grabs for his glass of wine with one hand and for Eleanor with his other. He gives her a few awkward pats before he gets into it and strokes her right until she looks like she’s about to climb into his lap as well.   
  
“And we’re keeping her?”, Noel asks and looks down at Liam. He sighs again when Liam nods, but then just firmly says, “she’s not sleeping in our bed, though.” Liam gives Eleanor an apologetic look before he nods and curls further into Noel to see if he’ll replace the wine glass in his hand with Liam’s hair.


	10. Under The Tree Lights

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Mature

Liam is silently sitting on the sofa by the Christmas tree when Noel comes in through the door, late and cold and dark. The entire room lies in opaque shadow, not even the tree is lit - even though Liam’s insisted on lighting it all day and night, could only just so be convinced that it’d be useless to keep it on when they were all asleep. Noel’s mostly anxious about the electricity bill but their mam had assured him that it’d be alright, she’d been saving for it in great foresight.   
  
But there’s not a single candle glowing on the now uninvitingly dark tree, only Liam’s eyes vaguely reflect the light that creeps in from outside while Noel is standing in the door frame, trying to get his eyes used to the darkness before he steps inside, and still more or less blindly finds his way over to the light switch of the Christmas tree.   
  
Liam finally huffs loudly when the warm light of the tree spreads over his face. Noel lets himself fall down next to him on the sofa, he can see how bright his eyes are with anger and how tightly his fists are clenched, but he still looks kind of cuddly. And Noel is yearning for something cuddly, he's drunk way too much tonight and found no one to get a bit cosy with, and now his stomach is just feeling kind of odd and his head a little lonely.    
  
He squeezes close to Liam, makes himself long and soft along his body and tries to get Liam's limbs to fit with his. But Liam's arm seems to get harder against his side instead, and then he scoots away. That’s a bit confusing, since when is Liam the one itching to get away? Noel isn't in the mood to chase anyone, but he can try to wrap his arm around Liam and pull him back against himself.    
  
Only Liam won't go, but struggles even further away with a poisonous look at Noel. "Don't fucking touch me", he hisses when Noel puts his hand on his thigh to try and pull him in one more time. That would've made Noel angry if his mood weren't so dulled down by the remnants of his night out. Now he just looks at Liam in surprise. "What's up with you? Never complained when I touched you before", he says and rubs his hand pointedly upwards.    
  
Now that he’s thought of it, he really is in the mood to get Liam off. Liam seems to be disappointingly far from that mood, though, he’s glaring angrily and pushing Noel's hand off. He seems to be in a right strop and not getting out of it, so Noel probably has to indulge him a bit and ask why.    
  
“What’s up, Liam?”, he asks a bit more seriously and refrains from licking the long pale neck that’s all Liam’s letting him see of him at the moment. “C’mon, just spit it out.”   
  
He nearly flinches when Liam’s head whips back around. “What’s up?”, Liam angrily spits back at him. “You’re out all the time trying to fuck your way through your stupid clubs with your stupid mates and when no one finds you fit enough to let you suck ‘em off, you’re suddenly back with me again, yeah? I’m not stupid, you’re not getting it from me when no one else wants you.”   
  
Noel’s gobsmacked. That isn’t what he’d expected to be running around Liam’s pretty head. He can only open and close his mouth a couple of times, his brain busily trying to make Liam’s words make sense and then come up with something in return.   
  
“That’s not true”, he says lamely and isn’t even surprised when Liam angrily huffs at that. “I’m not just trying to  _ get it _ from you, you’re my brother”, he says next and thinks that that’s maybe a little better, but Liam doesn’t understand him.   
  
“That hasn’t stopped you before, has it?”, he sneers, “don’t remember you suddenly pulling out when you remember it’s your little brother you’re balls-deep in.”   
  
Noel would shiver at the anger in his words if they didn’t make him hard the slightest bit. But he wants to calm Liam down, not get in his pants - although that maybe afterwards. “No, I don’t mean it like that”, he says and looks Liam in the eyes. A bit of honesty. “I do want it with you. But you’re also my brother, yeah? That’s more important, innit?”    
  
Noel can see the anger in Liam’s eyes turn more curious. His eyes wander over Noel’s face as if he’s trying to find traps, testing how true Noel’s being with him. “It’s not more important”, he tells Noel when he seems to have decided Noel’s not taking the piss. He looks at Noel like he’s unveiled one of the truths of the universe that Noel should long have known about.   
  
Noel hasn’t, though. “It isn’t?”, he asks quizzically.   
  
“Nah”, Liam says like it’s obvious. “It’s the same, innit? Us shagging and being brothers. Just how we are, we love each other. Belongs together, don’t it?” He almost looks funny the way he’s schooling Noel on incest and its complexities, but it seems to have made him forget about his anger and so Noel’s definitely not complaining.   
  
“Right”, he says, because it seems like Liam is right. He wonders if that lets him off the hook, too. He sees the way Liam’s chest puffs out as he agrees with him, and puts his hand on top of Liam’s where it’s resting on his thigh now, and threads their fingers together. Liam doesn’t pull away this time, quietly lets him do it and then squeezes Noel’s fingers so hard Noel thinks he might break them.   
  
“You cunt”, Liam says and Noel nods. He tries to pull at Liam again and this time Liam becomes soft at his side and shapes his body around Noel’s. It’s funny how it works with him, Noel didn’t even have to say anything really. He wraps his arm around Liam and Liam sighs into his shoulder. Noel feels a wet kiss where the collar of his shirt ends and then Liam’s lips against his ear.    
  
“D’you think you want to make up for being such a cunt?”, he breathes. His hand is already wandering over Noel’s chest, searching and groping and just feeling, and Noel wants to tell him to first turn off the tree so no one’s going to come looking why there’s still light in the living room. But Liam’s far too quick and efficient in his work, and the tree lights make pretty colours dance behind Noel’s eyes when he closes them to kiss Liam. The desperate slag.


	11. Ugly Sweaters

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This isn't exactly _ugly_ sweaters, but Noel's getting a little disgusting with one so maybe that counts
> 
> Explicit.

“I’m not wearing that, not a fucking chance”, Liam snarls. He’s clutching the jumper Noel threw at him a few seconds ago and looks like he’s about to do his best to tear it up with his bare hands. But their mam’s a strong woman and her knitwork is even stronger, there’s not a chance in hell even one thread is going to give under Liam’s hands.   
  
Noel isn’t even really sure why he’s trying to make Liam wear it, he’s not that into knitted jumpers that he’d deliberately make Liam angry over them. But here he is, doing everything he knows to get Liam into that jumper. It’s not even like he’d get to embarrass Liam with it, it’s a quiet Sunday where they don’t have to be anywhere, and Noel had kind of been looking forward to just lazing around with Liam and enjoying a day where he maybe wouldn’t be doing his head in for once. He’d let Liam sleep over the night before, and now he’s still only in his boxers, sitting cross-legged on Noel’s bed and looking like he should be covered up by something to hide all his perfect naked skin.  
  
“Don’t be such a fucking cunt, just put it on”, Noel says exasperatedly and sits down next to him to pull at the jumper in Liam’s iron grip, and then stroke over Liam’s thighs when his hands slide off and have nowhere else to go but Liam’s body. “Maybe”, he continues slowly, making suggestive eyes at Liam, “maybe you could take off something else for it. ‘S that a deal? You can get out of these”, he tugs at Liam’s boxers and slides one finger underneath them, “and put your jumper on instead.”  
  
Liam’s eyes are on him and wildly skeptical. “What would I put something else on for when I’m getting naked?”, he asks, and he may have a point, but that’s not the point Noel wants to make.  
  
“Then you wouldn’t be so fucking indecent in my bed for once”, Noel says like it makes sense. Like he hasn’t just asked his brother to get his cock out and then put on the jumper their mam knitted him for Christmas.  
  
But Liam nods like it does make sense. Not necessarily like he agrees that it’s a great idea like Noel clearly thinks it is, but like he’s going to do it because that seems to be the only way Noel will have him with his dick out in his bed. He goes to slide off his boxers but Noel shakes his head. “Jumper first”, he says and is mildly surprised that Liam isn’t laughing at how breathy he sounds.  
  
But Liam just obediently unfolds the jumper and pulls it over his head, messing up his hair, and then gets out of his boxers, his dick hard by now and slapping up against the jumper. Noel gulps. “Good boy”, he says and wraps his hand around Liam’s cock. The wool of the jumper is scratchy against his skin.  
  
Liam is panting and staring at him and Noel is panting and staring at his cock, leaking all over his hand and the jumper, colouring the fabric a darker red. He starts to move his hand, squeezes Liam’s cock tight and wanks him off firmly. “How’s that feel?”, he asks and doesn’t even attempt to hide the hoarse arousal in his voice.   
  
“So good, Noely, don’t stop”, Liam gasps in response and that’s good, really good, but not good enough. Noel pushes Liam’s dick under the jumper, builds a little cave for it and his hand between Liam’s stomach and the warm, scratchy fabric and continues to stroke him with eager fingers.  
  
He can feel it when Liam gets close, his dick is twitching in his hand and Noel rubs it against the jumper a bit, goes faster and keeps pulling the fabric against Liam’s cock until Liam slumps forward and against him and comes all wet and hot in the little hollow that Noel’s made for him. When Noel hears his last exhausted groan, he rubs Liam’s come all over the inside of his jumper and then also a bit over the fat Santa Claus on the front of his chest before he slips his hand into his own pants.


	12. (Sex) Toys

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This is just pointless porn, so
> 
> Explicit.

Liam’s been begging him for weeks now, weeks that Noel had to shove his cock down Liam’s throat or turn him around and fuck him into the mattress to shut him up. Which isn’t exactly the worst way for things to go, but it’s getting annoying. Mostly how much it makes Noel think about it and start to feel like he might enjoy having Liam do it to him for once. But the more Liam keeps pestering him the more he can’t say yes. And besides that Noel can’t help feeling that he should at least have his own flat so he doesn’t have to let his little brother fuck him in the bed they’d both wet on a couple of instances in their time.  
  
But Liam’s persistent and Noel catches himself more and more often thinking about how it’d feel to have Liam lying between his legs and pushing in, making Noel the one to helplessly sigh and arch his back as he comes all over himself. That isn’t going to happen, though, not until Noel’s moved somewhere far from the little room he can’t even lock when he makes his little brother come.  
  
Which is a shame really, but on that one rainy afternoon when Noel has somehow ended up in front of this one dodgy shop on this one dodgy street he finds that maybe there’s also some potential to it. Quite expensive potential, but it’s almost Christmas and he thinks he deserves a present. The man handing him his bag with a wink and a somehow suggestive ‘merry Christmas’ seems to think so, too, but Noel _really_ can’t wait to see what Liam will think.  
  
Noel waits until Tuesday when Paul and their mam’s night shift overlap and the house is empty except for Liam, him, and the bag he’s hidden in the one corner under his bed where Liam doesn’t go. Liam seemed to have plans for that night, but Noel had told him to fuck all the stupid slags he’d wanted to run around with, and then flicked his ear rather viciously when Liam had said that that was exactly what he’d been planning on doing.  
  
On Tuesday Liam’s eyes are full of impatience when Noel comes home from work. It makes Noel want to sit down and have tea first, but that might not work so well with _his_ plans, so he just shoots Liam a look and goes to the bathroom. When he comes back out Liam’s positively crawling up the walls and Noel decides he’s only kissing him when they’re up in their room. Liam’s tongue just moves so much more sweetly with Noel’s when Noel’s made him wait long enough.  
  
“Noel”, Liam whines when Noel breaks away and Noel can see how much he’s already worked himself up over the almost-promise Noel made when he’d ordered Liam to stay in tonight. He’s half-hard in his jeans and Noel would laugh at him if that weren’t exactly the state he wants Liam in.  
  
“Get on the bed”, he says, and watches Liam also strip in preemptive obedience. It’s a nice view and makes Noel think about just doing it the regular way and getting Liam up on his hands and knees, or much more extraordinarily getting himself on his hands and knees, but then he hears Liam’s desperate gasp as he wraps his hand around his cock and remembers what doing the other thing could get him.  
  
Under Liam’s confused eyes he gets on his knees and stretches his arm long under his bed, rummages around until he comes up with the bag in his hands. He gets on the bed, too, and decidedly pushes Liam’s grabby hands away. “That one’s not for you”, he tells him and thinks that he seems to get Liam stuff way too often if he immediately assumes Noel’s bought him something.  
  
“What? Why not?”, Liam complains and looks at Noel like he’s fallen victim to the world’s greatest injustice.  
  
“It just isn’t”, Noel says and lets himself fall down on his back next to Liam. Which earns him another confused stare from Liam, this doesn’t seem to be how he expected this evening to go. His eyebrows knit together in endless confusion when Noel empties out the bag onto his stomach and out comes a box that very clearly states what it contains.  
  
“The fuck do you want with a dildo?”, Liam asks, almost scandalised. It’s kind of funny, Noel thinks, but he doesn’t laugh because admittedly he’s a little nervous now that it’s become a real thing instead of just a possibility stored away under his bed.  
  
“What do you think?”, he asks back and busies himself opening the box and getting the thing out. It’s not too big, Noel isn’t one for unnecessary masochism, but it looks like it’ll fill him up nicely enough to make Liam well jealous.  
  
When he looks up to Liam, he’s stammering, can’t put the pieces together. So Noel helps him with a grin on his face that he may have studied in front of the bathroom mirror. “ _You’re_ not gonna fuck me”, he says, “but I’m doing myself with this here, yeah? I think I’d like that.”  
  
He keeps his eyes eagerly on Liam, drinks in the jealousy and anger and excitement flooding his face, and then strips off his clothes. Sometimes he makes himself come to the way Liam looks at his body. The kid is the best of ego boosts there is, he looks at Noel like he’s the fittest footballer in the whole world even when he takes his kit off, especially when he takes his kit off, and it’s fucking intoxicating.  
  
“You’d rather shove a fucking dildo up your arse than let me do you?”, Liam asks angrily, and this really is brilliant.  
  
“Dead on”, Noel says and keeps grinning at Liam in the way that’s like pricking a needle into the hornets’ nest of Liam’s anger.  
  
“Right”, Liam says with a furious tremor in his voice. “I’m going to go then, yeah? Don’t need me obviously.”  
  
He’s already fishing for his clothes but Noel gets him by his wrist. “I think you’d like to see, though, right?”, he says in that voice he’s learnt will make Liam tame and nice and brilliantly easy to handle. He also moves his legs apart for a bit more of an incentive and grabs for the lube.  
  
Noel can see the moment when the interest in Liam’s eyes wins over his outrage before he settles back into his place next to Noel. “You’re a fucking cunt”, Liam tells him but he’s curiously peering over to where Noel’s rubbing his lube-slick fingers against his hole.  
  
So far Noel knows how it goes, he’s done that himself quite a few times, had it done to himself quite a few times as well, and he likes it, his cock is already leaking against his stomach, but he’s not touching it yet. He gives Liam’s cock a few strokes, though, and pushes his fingers harder into himself when Liam gasps and curls himself into Noel.  
  
Noel’s up to three fingers fast, it burns a little unpleasantly at first, but Liam’s watching him so intently, and he really can’t go slower than he goes with him. It doesn’t matter anyway when he finds that spot and keeps stroking over it until his hips lift into his touch all on their own and Liam’s openly panting into his side.  
  
“Get up”, he tells Liam when he thinks he’s alright to move on to the real deal. He isn’t quite sure anymore if it’s really that great of an idea to have Liam sit where he has full view of Noel fucking himself with a toy, but he’s sticking to how he’s thought this out now. Liam’s eyes don’t leave him while he prepares the dildo, and somehow seeing Liam’s hand speed up on his cock makes it much easier for Noel to press the tip of it to his hole and begin to push it in.  
  
Liam’s eyes are so big Noel thinks he’d probably be able to watch himself reflect in them if he could see straight right now. But he can’t, it really fucking hurts and makes tears gather in the corners of his eyes and then roll out, and he has to close his eyes so Liam can’t see. Only Liam still seems to know what’s up, his hand is on Noel’s thigh suddenly, warm and steady, and he’s rubbing it in a way that’s actually soothing before he pushes Noel’s leg at a different angle and then also moves his other leg, and that really seems to help.  
  
Suddenly the dildo seems to sink into Noel all by itself, and it still hurts, but in a way that’s bearable and almost enjoyable even. He pushes it in all the way and Liam’s hand is still on his thigh when all at once the dildo hits his prostate and his entire body spasms.  
  
He doesn’t feel much pain after that, just keeps pushing it against his spot and finally manages to shove Liam’s hand off, which earns him an angry huff and then a choked off moan when Liam can concentrate again on watching the way Noel stretches around the dildo.  
  
“Noel”, he whines with his fist furiously working his cock up and down, “c’mon, you’ve already got that thing up your arse, just let me try. I’ll be good, promise, I’ll make you feel so good, yeah?”  
  
The thing is, Noel believes him. He can imagine Liam’s good, and the way he touched Noel makes him think he’d definitely take care of what Noel needs. But it’s not what Noel’s planned on doing, so it’s not happening.  
  
“I’m feeling quite good already”, he says and pulls the dildo out a little further so Liam can see his hole swallow it all up again when he pushes it back in. “Think I’m gonna come on it, yeah? Reckon that’ll feel fucking fantastic.”  
  
He wraps his hand around his cock and gets a fast rhythm going, even though by now it’s hard to keep his hands under control. It feels like his whole body is trembling out of his skin, only Liam’s desperate noises keeping him grounded.  
  
“Noel”, he’s panting and reaching out to touch him again, but Noel shakes his head and Liam pulls back. “Bet you’re pretending it’s my cock”, Liam says, “you fucking want me. You’re gagging for it, I can see it, you know?”  
  
He’s a clever kid when he wants to be, but Noel’s a little too far gone to be upset about it. And, he fucking likes it. “Yeah”, he gets out between two chest-heaving moans, “I’m thinking about your cock, fuck. Gonna let you fuck me one day, gonna come on _your_ cock.”  
  
And then he’s coming and can’t believe it, but there’s too much happening, too much sensation overpowering any form of clear thought anyway, and he just gives in to the tightly wound up pleasure in his stomach uncurling and spreading through him, making his arms and legs twitch and his hand jerk the dildo further inside him. It’s so fucking intense like this and Noel thinks he might’ve lost some time before he comes back to his senses.  
  
He finds Liam on his knees sitting between his legs, still wanking furiously, and Noel wants to tell him to back off and also pull the dildo out but he’s so fucking tired now and everything feels heavy, he can just stare at Liam. It’s still a nice view, even when he’s pretty sure the nice view is about to come all over him.  
  
“I’m gonna come, Noel”, Liam pants out, and then he does, all over Noel’s stomach and his spent cock. Noel would like to slap him, but more on principle and not because he actually minds, it almost feels nice to have Liam all over him.  
  
He manages to glare at Liam, but then gets preoccupied with focusing his energy on pulling out the dildo, because it’s really becoming too much now. His hands are a bit weak still, though, and struggle to grip it firmly enough, but then Liam’s hand is there, pushing Noel’s out of the way and gently pulling the dildo out of him.  
  
“There you go”, he says and drops it back into the box, not bothering to get the lube and condom off. He lies down next to Noel again and fits himself against his side, throws one arm over Noel’s stomach. “I’m gonna fuck you so good one day”, he says, and Noel covers up his little shiver with a laugh.  
  
“Shut the fuck up”, he says and presses himself a little closer to Liam.


	13. Hot Cocoa

“You’re not drinking another one if you want to sleep in my room tonight”, Noel says decidedly and pulls Liam’s cup away from him. “You’re already high on sugar, aren’t you?”, he adds, giving Liam a short once-over. 

He’s still sat in his chair, which is good, but his leg is bouncing and his hands are fiddling with every little thing they can reach, and Noel really isn’t keen on having Liam’s wild hands all over himself in bed tonight. Well, not in that way anyway. Liam’s pulled out one too many of Noel’s hairs after he’d had one marshmallow too much. He’s worse on them than on coke.

“Don’t know what you’re talking about”, Liam says, “why do you even fucking make hot cocoa if you’re not letting me have any?” 

Noel gives him an incredulous look. “You’ve had five, Liam. Which is four too many already so quit whingeing.” He takes a sip of his own hot cocoa and keeps staring at Liam over the rim of his mug. Liam’s lips are dark with chocolate clinging to the corners of his mouth and he’s looking a lot tastier than Noel’s hot cocoa. Noel isn’t even that mad for it anyway. 

“Alright”, he sighs, “you can have another taste if you want.”

Immediately Liam’s hands go for his mug again, but Noel pulls it out of his reach. “Not like that”, he says and takes another sip of his own. “Come here.” He makes a little room next to himself on the sofa and watches Liam cautiously approach him. 

“What now?”, Liam asks impatiently after he’s finally settled into the cushions. 

Noel busies himself with another big sip before he slowly puts the mug down on the table and turns to Liam. “Well, come and get your taste”, he says, and lets his tongue run over his bottom lip before he can stop himself. 

It takes a second until it sinks in, but then Liam is on him and almost pushes him over onto his back as he smashes his open mouth against Noel’s. Noel doesn’t reprimand him for it, just lets him push his tongue deep inside his mouth and slide it around, trying to find all of what’s left of Noel’s chocolate before Liam remembers that kissing Noel properly is fun enough, too, and starts to slide his tongue against Noel’s in the way that always makes Noel go all breathy and has him holding on to Liam with possessive hands.


	14. "You First." "No You."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Good god, I really don't now why I keep writing chapters this long. Anyway, this is an outsider POV one with Gem being the outsider.

Despite everybody thinking it was the easiest decision in the world Gem had taken quite some time to think about if he wanted to join Oasis. There’d seemed a lot to be considered and weighed up against the money and fame and being part of music history. Like thinking about just why two band members had decided to leave right on the peak of it all, like the brutal fights splayed over the fronts of dozens of magazines and newspapers, like the two maybe far too intense characters forming the unstable core of it.   
  
He’d come to the conclusion that he’d be able to handle it, and then had quietly become more and more excited about it all. The whole turmoil was utterly fascinating, and knowing that he was now part of it had been just slightly overwhelming in the very best way.   
  
What he hadn’t been thinking about, though, was that he might end up standing here in front of the door of their dressing room with Andy and channeling his inner preschooler as he says, “you first.”   
  
He reads a similar look of incredulousness at their situation on Andy’s face when he gives right back, “no you.”    
  
They know each other just well enough that it isn’t too embarrassing between them, but it’s also obvious to both of them that even if it were, it still wouldn’t be as wildly uncomfortable as the reason they’re playing this little game in the first place.    
  
Gem would consider paying quite a lot of what he’s hopefully going to make to not have gotten the idea to ask Noel if he was in the mood for some more pre-show jamming this afternoon, and he’s rather sure that Andy’s having similar thoughts about not joining him when he bumped into Gem in front of the door of Noel’s hotel room.   
  
He still isn’t sure why he didn’t just fucking knock - or did he knock and Noel did say  _ come in?  _ Though Gem isn’t sure how, or rather  _ why _ he would’ve been doing that. Because when he went in, Andy close behind him, there was Noel firmly entangled with a man on the couch, kissing and groping each other all over. It looked like they’d been going for quite a while already, Gem still can’t get the wet sound of two pairs of lips closing around each other again and again out of his ears.    
  
He’d stopped dead on the spot, but even when Andy loudly bumped into him, Noel and the man he had half up in his lap didn’t seem to notice their audience. Noel’s hand determinedly slid over the bloke’s side and to his thigh, pulling it up a bit, and the guy seemed eager to help, sliding his leg between Noel’s and moaning with a kind of familiar voice.    
  
Gem remembers faintly thinking about how Noel had managed to smuggle his boyfriend with him or whatever this was before Andy did the right thing and cleared his throat to make them noticed. And then everything happened a bit too fast for Gem to remember in much detail. All he knows is the bloke in Noel’s lap broke away from Noel and turned around, and at first Gem only looked over at Noel with a tiny bit of sensational curiosity for how the chief would look in a situation he hadn’t arranged or expected, but then he heard Andy’s sharp inhale and his eyes wandered over to Noel’s bloke, only to find Liam sitting there with swollen lips and tousled hair and a raging hard-on in his jeans.   
  
It was like his brain needed a little time-out to catch up with the meaning of it. His eyes went rapid, skipping over Noel’s hand still on Liam’s thigh and his flushed face and the unmistakable lust in Liam’s eyes while his brain tried to thread the images together like pearls on a really weird necklace. Because it was weird, immediately, Gem didn’t need to try to write a dissertation on it to understand that this was more than a little odd.   
  
It was incest. Like with Freud, or in porn, though that usually seemed to be a different kind of it. It was something rather outlandish, something theoretical that certainly didn’t happen to tough working class blokes turned rockstars, millionaires and the covers of magazines. Or well, it didn’t exactly  _ happen _ to them, did it? It was them _ holding  _ each other like they might, should, their girlfriends and wives,  _ kissing  _ like you do with a longtime lover you still can’t get enough of, and the way they still sat together was one of deliberate intimacy.   
  
And then everything did fit together, suddenly, because Gem remembered, still remembers, how he’d seen them sitting together, only a secret fitting between them and even when leading wholly different conversations their movements still weirdly in sync. He maybe could’ve figured it out if he’d wanted to, but he hadn’t. And now it seemed he had no choice, it had been figured out for him right in front of his eyes.   
  
The worst thing about it probably was the great silence, no one daring to speak a word. Gem usually is quite good with tension, it doesn’t affect him much, and if it does, he can just unroll it and look at it from all sides until he knows how to let that slide away, too. Then, though, he did feel his nerves burning and straining, and he wasn’t sure which way to look at it to straighten out the knots in his stomach again.    
  
The weirdest thing of all was Noel. Liam was sliding around on the couch in a way that Gem by now had learned meant he was nervous, Gem himself had started to feel just the slightest bit afraid and Andy next to him couldn’t be feeling much different from him, Gem could sense how he kept shifting his weight from one leg to the other, trying not to move too much. Noel though looked - if not entirely relaxed - cool, almost unaffected.   
  
His mouth was shining with his own brother’s spit, and his hair was messed up where Liam must’ve threaded his fingers through it, but he was sitting on the couch like nothing in the world was wrong, or at least nothing in his world. He was the one to finally speak, and his voice was a little hoarse the way it is when you’ve been down a good part of the road that leads to shagging, but otherwise he sounded solid.   
  
“So, you needed anything?”, he said, looking from Gem to Andy and back to Gem. Gem suddenly had to stop himself from bursting into laughter. He’d gotten to know Noel’s sense of humour quite well already, but this felt like something out of a really challenging comedy sketch.   
  
“No, we’re good”, Gem answered him and felt proud of his unaffected voice in the midst of all these confusing thoughts and feelings. “Just wanted to see if you were up for jamming a little, but…”, he tried to continue and got stuck.   
  
Noel helped him. “Maybe next time, yeah?”, he said, and then, “let’s talk at the venue. Not much time left til we have to leave for it, is it?”    
  
So he didn’t just want to pretend this whole thing had never happened, but actually talk about it. Gem wasn’t sure which possibility he preferred, but it didn’t seem like there was much of a choice, and it still doesn’t seem like it now that he’s stood immediately in front of the one Noel picked.   
  
He rolls his eyes at Andy, not in an unkind way, and then goes to open the door - no, knock on it first. He waits for two seconds after Noel calls  _ yeah? _ from the inside before he opens the door and steps inside the dressing room. He finds Noel and Liam sitting on opposite ends of the couch in here and almost sighs in relief, but doesn’t because Noel’s eyes are on him and Andy immediately.   
  
“Beer’s in the fridge”, Noel says and vaguely points in the direction of it. So Gem gets himself and Andy a beer each, and then goes to sit on the sofa opposite of Noel and Liam’s. He doesn’t say anything, just waits and watches the way Liam still seems to be a little uncomfortable, picking several holes into the cushions and letting his eyes flit over to Noel and then to Gem and Andy every so often, and how Noel sits perfectly still and seems to have eyes for no one until he seems to have decided that the right amount of time has passed for him to finally start his audience, or whatever this is.   
  
“Right”, he says like they’re about to discuss business now, and it hits Gem that they actually might be. He gives Noel a slight nod and keeps his eyes from wandering over to Liam to see how he’s doing now that it’s started, he has a feeling that Noel wouldn’t appreciate that. So he keeps looking at Noel, puts his tried unreadable, but still friendly expression to good use, and listens.   
  
“So you’ve seen me and him”, Noel cuts straight to the point. He gestures over to Liam, and Gem uses the opportunity to sneak a little glance at him. He finds Liam calm now that Noel’s speaking. He’s still picking his holes, but his shoulders are leaning relaxed against the backrest and his thighs have softly fallen open.    
  
There’s a bit of silence again and Gem isn’t sure if he’s supposed to say something now. He can’t help feeling that this whole situation is somehow in reverse -  _ he  _ caught them snogging like randy teenagers, with everyone else  _ he  _ would be the one to confront and create uneasy silences. But instead it feels like he’s being tested, but he thinks how Noel wants this to go now.   
  
He nods in agreement with Noel, and then asks, “you’re doing that often then?”   
  
Noel’s face doesn’t change really, only now Gem can see the vigilant look in his eyes. Noel tilts his head to the side. “Yes”, he says easily, calmly, and then gives Gem somewhat of a curious look.   
  
“Right”, Andy says next to him, he seems to have caught on to what Gem thinks is the right way to go about this. “You’re ...like a couple?” Gem can hear him looking for the right words, but there aren’t really any and he’d probably gone with that one as well, it makes the question clear.   
  
Noel looks like he’s flinching inwardly, but he doesn’t really seem to be irked by the question. “Well, not like that”, he says, “I’ve got my girlfriend, he’s got his, but we’re-”   
  
He gets interrupted by Liam, finally. “We’re fucking lovers”, he says, still leaned back against the couch, but with a grand gesture of his arm, and this time Noel flinches, and Gem gets why. It might be one of the most uncomfortable sentences he’s ever heard anyone utter, and Liam says a lot of them, but this one tops them all. Maybe Gem’s going to be sick after all.   
  
Noel’s face finally twists into something other than pointed calmness, and for one or two seconds Gem thinks there might be a fight. But then Noel just shifts his leg and carries on as if he hadn’t heard Liam.   
  
“Me and him just have this thing”, he says, and Gem is surprised at how much that doesn’t sound like something hard-hitting he’s prepared to tell. His voice is softer all of a sudden, and it almost sounds like Noel’s acquiescing to Liam in a way, even if he hasn’t spared him one look. He's giving Andy and Gem a long look each, though, and Gem makes sure to only leave that part of his thoughts showing that despite everything is arriving at the conclusion that  _ alright, he can live with this. It isn't really his thing to judge, and it probably won't hurt him if they've managed to go on with this for what's probably years already. _ _  
_ _  
_ “Okay”, Gem says, even though he’s not quite sure if he’s meant to speak now. “We’re probably not the only ones who know, are we?” He wonders how big of a secret he’s going to be carrying, and who’s helping with that, and also what level of trust Noel’s putting them on.   
  
“Think most of the crew knows, right, Noel?”, Liam jumps in, now leaning forward like he’s decided that actually he’s far more than just an observer of this conversation. Gem can’t figure out if Noel’s happy about that or not.   
  
“Right, Liam”, Noel says, and a satisfied grin spreads over Liam’s face as he leans back again, seemingly satisfied with his role in this now.   
  
Noel continues, “like he says, most of them know. Or have an idea, y’know? It isn’t a big deal. Is it?” There’s the question, Gem thinks.    
  
But it’s not really a question. He doesn’t want to leave this, he’s tasted the sheer power of it and might’ve become addicted already. And then he also hasn’t had enough yet of either Liam’s all-consuming presence on stage and his odd conversations before and afterwards or of Noel’s brilliance and his quick dry jokes and careless loud laughter.   
  
He shrugs. “Not really my business, is it?”, he says and carefully looks at Noel. Next to him Andy shifts a little and nods. “No, I think so, too”, he says.   
  
Noel looks like he’s about to answer, but Liam’s faster. He’s leaning forward again and suddenly has an intense look about him. “Right, it isn’t. But what about when the chief decides to plant a big one on me after he’s worked himself up over being up on stage with me? Still not your business then?”   
  
Gem almost has the instinct to back up under Liam’s stare, but he’s already sitting with his back touching the couch, there’s nowhere to go. He wonders if there’s also nowhere to go when they get it on,  _ if  _ they do get it on when there’s people there to see. So far this has been the only instance where he’s seen any of that sort from them and that’s been in the privacy of Noel’s hotel room. Although then again, Gem still has this weird echo of Noel calling them in in his ear.   
  
He shrugs again and looks at Liam as openly as he manages to. “I’d say so”, he answers, and feels a little relieved when Andy agrees with him. He can’t be entirely wrong in his choice then.   
  
Liam looks content with his answer, he turns to Noel and impatiently looks at him. This seems to be the moment of the final decision-making then, Gem figures.    
  
“Fantastic”, Noel says dryly and lets his gaze wander over all of them to distribute his sarcasm equally. “I’m going for a fag.” And with that he’s up and out, and Gem doesn’t know what he expected - to be knighted as an official member of Oasis now that he’s in on the incest? - but a conclusion this anticlimactic seems almost a little disappointing. Though it fits Noel, he supposes.   
  
Liam for his part is up as well now, whistling and wandering about like Gem’s gotten used to him doing, and everything looks so bloody normal it’s almost driving him mad. But then again what else should they do? Discussing with Liam when he’s first kissed his brother, Lord, when he’s first fucked him, seems off the charts - though Gem’s not sure if Liam wouldn’t just happily disclose all about that to him.   
  
(He’ll actually discuss something to that extent with both Liam and Noel (separately) some time down the road, he’ll learn a lot more intimate details about their relationship than he knows about that of his own parents, and he’ll learn how to not let the intensity of their emotions affect his own too much.    
  
He’ll catch glances between them so tender they make  _ his  _ heart stumble, and he’ll witness fights so cruel they have _ his _ own heartbeat pounding in his ears.    
  
It’ll become normal, quite fast. It doesn’t even take half as long as he thinks before he can look both of them easily in the eyes again without thinking  _ you’re in love with your own brother.) _ __  
__  
The show goes well, they go for drinks later, get fucking smashed, and Noel kisses Liam right in front of them again, demonstratively.


	15. Formalwear

Noel really didn’t know why it was his task to convince Liam to put on his suit for Christmas mass. He was 17, should be able to do it on his own, or at least be enough of a man to just not go to mass at all. Although that’d break their mam’s heart and it’d probably be Noel’s task again to convince him to give in and come to mass once more.   
  
“Come on, Liam, just put the suit on”, he said, trying to go for a relaxed tone. You couldn’t let Liam know you were in a hurry or he’d just drag it out even longer.  
  
“But I don’t fucking want to”, Liam said cleverly in response, looking at Noel from under his eyelids. He was standing in the corner like he expected Noel to go and beat him into his suit or something.   
  
“And why don’t you want to?”, Noel asked, trying his hardest not to really go and beat Liam into his fucking suit.   
  
“It’s uncomfortable”, Liam said. He was rubbing his arms like he could feel it on them and kept staring at Noel. It was a little unsettling.   
  
“Yeah, they’re all uncomfortable”, Noel said, stretching his arms out to show Liam how uncomfortable he was in his suit, too. “They make you look good, though, don’t they? Don’t you want to look good?”   
  
Liam gave him a wary glance like Noel had just offered to buy his soul instead of just trying to convince him to put on a suit for fucking four hours max. “You think I’d look good in it?”, he asked, though, and his voice sounded a little less petulant and instead ...breathier?    
  
(Noel knew exactly what it sounded like. The same excited hitch from when Liam came out of their room with some girl still sitting inside, and got himself a glass of water right next to Noel with all the patience in the world while he pressed himself far too close to Noel and said, “she’s really fit, Noely, d’you wanna take a look?”)   
  
It had Noel feeling a little more hopeful. And maybe also something else, but he concentrated on giving Liam a careful smile. “Yeah”, he said and made his voice as smooth as possible as he let his eyes run over Liam’s body, “I do. I think you’d look proper fit in your suit.”    
  
It was kind of hard to get the words out, but they made an exciting warmth spread in his stomach, and when Liam’s cheeks blushed just the faintest bit Noel felt like the struggle really had been worth it. “I’ll see you downstairs then”, he said, but then lingered in front of Liam for a moment. He laid his hand on Liam’s neck as he leaned in to murmur into his ear, “say something if you need help with your tie later, alright?”   
  
He could hear Liam sigh and then the shuffling of feet and rustling of clothes as he walked down the stairs. A triumphant grin stretched over his face as he gave his mam a quick nod that yes, Liam would be in his suit and with them shortly.


	16. Christmas Music

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This is only very vaguely about Christmas music - Liam's performance of All You're Dreaming Of on Jonathan Ross. 
> 
> And, again, explicit.

Noel doesn’t watch it on TV, he doesn’t have the time, doesn’t have the space (there isn’t a TV in either his office or his studio). He watches it on YouTube, just the performance. Better not to see Liam embarrassing himself blabbering a load of pathetic bullshit.    
  
He’s got his laptop on his knees and is leaning back on the couch in his studio - easy and relaxed. There’s a bottle of wine in front of him but he hasn’t opened it. Of course he doesn’t have to get drunk to watch his brother perform on TV (laptop, whatever), and he’s also not going to  _ enjoy  _ it with a glass of wine. So sober it is.    
  
He clicks play.    
  
It’s not like he doesn’t know what Liam’s going to look like - his mam forwards him every selfie Liam sends her to assure her he’s still alive and well - but it still comes kind of as a shock to see him in movement. After all Noel doesn’t do this kind of thing too often - but Matt’s asked him for his opinion on the tune, and if he’s listening to it, he might as well take a look at what Liam’s up to.  
  
Alright, maybe he’s already listened to the song before. The horns aren’t surprising him when the applause has faded, the piano isn’t either, and so his eyes have time to look at the wrinkles in Liam’s parka and to linger on the bits of Liam’s skin that the wide shots let him see.    
  
The first close-up is startling, almost. Liam’s eyelids are huge and heavy, lowering and fluttering back up, and from the side Noel can see Liam’s mouth brushing, then pressing up against the microphone, and fuck.    
  
Yes, sometimes when Noel’s got some time off - from whatever - he still makes himself come to Liam singing. He doesn’t think much about it, it’s nothing special, is it? Liam’s always been singing for him, has perfected that deep stare, that bent back, that wide stance just for Noel. It’s always belonged to him, just like his voice.   
  
That’s why it still sends tingles of satisfaction down his back when Liam’s voice goes straight to his cock. He sounds good, better than he’s done in ages, and Noel’s cock twitches at his dirty drawl when he rises up over the piano.    
  
Noel can see the inside of his mouth, his tongue, begging to touch the microphone. His lips are a shiny pink and Noel can almost feel the way they stretch around the vowels. Liam’s nose nudges against the microphone and Noel’s cock is hard in his hand.    
  
Sometimes when he watches Liam and wanks he likes to concentrate on the feeling of his cock in his hand. Fuck him, he likes the feeling of knowing that he’s touching himself while looking at his brother, that he’s going to make himself come while he watches his little brother’s face twist into shapes forming words, sounds that ring in Noel’s blood.   
  
The severe swing and turn of Liam’s shoulders moves Noel’s hand up and down his cock, and his fingers play around the head and dip into the slit with Liam’s nose crinkling up more harshly around the harder notes.   
  
It doesn’t take him long, just until the last line with Liam’s face twisted up in tasty hunger, his eyes going all wrinkly for a second, almost cry-like like when you’re on that edge of  _ almost there, just that one more bit,  _ and Noel  _ is _ right there - shaky fingers replaying the last seconds, and then his come splatters all across the laptop, Liam’s face.   
  
After, he rewinds the video to a shot of Liam. He finds a pretty one, not too twisted, and takes a picture with his phone. His come all dirty up on the screen where Liam’s singing his heart out, a bit right on his mouth, some in his hair.    
  
‘Merry Christmas’ Noel writes under it when he finds Liam’s contact and selects the picture to send it to him.


	17. Meeting The Family

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I wanted to do something silly and funny with this, but then it turned into this and suddenly wasn't either that funny or silly anymore...

It’s dark except for the little candle Liam’s found somewhere in the house and smuggled upstairs into their room.  _ Romantic, innit?  _ he’d asked Noel, and then shoved him and threatened to set his hair on fire instead when Noel had rolled his eyes and told him he was fucking demented.   
  
It’s nice, though, the little flame shining a warm light over Liam’s face. Noel can’t look too closely or his stomach starts to feel like there’s a whole fire lit inside, eating away at his guts, but if he just keeps the shape of Liam in his peripheral vision it makes him feel almost at peace.   
  
They’re alone, mam and Paul both out, and Noel didn’t even try to say no when Liam grabbed his hand and tugged him upstairs, whispering something about  _ can do it fucking proper today, yeah?  _ They’d done it proper, really fucking proper, and Noel’s so exhausted, way too exhausted for the way Liam’s blabbering on about just about all the shit in the entire fucking world.   
  
“You sure mam’s not coming back before 9?” Liam asks suddenly and Noel’s heart stumbles over a beat.   
  
“Jesus fucking Christ, Liam, I’m sure. Stop saying shit like that”, he grunts and twists the skin of Liam’s arm hard between his thumb and pointer finger. It’s become a bit of a habit of Liam’s to say stuff like that after they’ve both come and still have a moment to lie together naked and exhausted and sticking together everywhere their skin touches. Noel’s just glad he hasn’t yet started to ask about mam or Paul while Noel’s got his mouth around his cock or while Liam’s lying under him with his big eyes boring into Noel almost making him say something stupid like  _ I love you. _ _  
_ _  
_ “‘m just being helpful”, Liam protests Noel’s dark tone. “You’re always going on about not letting her find out, should be a little grateful for me keeping an eye out.”   
  
Noel rolls his eyes at him. “You don’t sound like you’re keeping an eye out, you little idiot. Sound like you’re fucking hoping for her to come in.” He sounds a little pissed off, he can hear it himself, but that’s the first and easiest place he slips into when he talks to Liam, anybody really. But also, it  _ does  _ seem a little like that’s what Liam’s hoping for. He gets this weird gleam in his eyes when he says something like that, and Noel knows he’s so screwed in the head that he might actually want their mam to find them in bed together.   
  
Noel shudders a little at the thought and Liam wraps his arm around him, drawing him in closer. They’re chest to chest and the candle lets shadows flicker over Liam’s face like demons breaking out of his skin. It’s beautiful, Noel supposes. Liam’s mouth is beautiful. It fits beautifully against Noel’s, his tongue makes gorgeous noises inside his mouth.   
  
Noel’s thoughts can’t help wandering to the bedroom door. Whoever opens it will be shown right to Liam’s bed, right to where Noel’s lying in the arms of his little brother snogging him with more passion than he’s been able to muster for all of his past girlfriends.   
  
Liam’s sighing into Noel’s mouth and there’s a door creaking. Is it? Noel’s not looking now, Liam’s got his hand running over his chest, got it rubbing Noel’s nipples, tugging his chest hair, and Noel’s heavy with pleasure, tumbling blindly closer to Liam.    
  
Liam bites Noel’s lip, makes a sound low in his throat when Noel pushes back, and there might be the squeak of a door swinging open fully. There’s more light over Noel’s face, isn’t it? There’s bright light trying to break through his closed eyelids, and Liam’s hands are becoming more desperate on his chest, more clawing, more scratching, grabbing.   
  
Noel sighs, and there’s a gasp, a cough? A high, panting voice. “Noel? Is that you?” And Noel closes his mouth around Liam’s lip and sucks, blindly, eyes shut tightly. Liam groans. His hands are pushing at Noel suddenly, there’s no fingers carefully walking through his hair, no fingertips gently tracing his nipples, just hard palms flat against Noel. Liam’s wriggling, gasping, but his face doesn’t move away from Noel’s, his mouth doesn’t slide off Noel’s.    
  
“Noel.” The voice is more insistent, and it begins to find its way into Noel’s head and into his bones where he knows it. His mam sounds scared. Noel recalls images of his own face smashed bloody, his arms hanging off his shoulders in weird angles and his mam’s face filled to the brim with agony and fear.   
  
He lets Liam go a bit, their mouths apart a good few inches now, just that one obscene thread of spit holding them together. Liam’s eyes are in line of sight with Noel’s, they’re unbelievably wide, but Noel’s almost looking through them. “Yes, mam?”, he says. His voice is like crumbling old stone.   
  
She sighs heavily like she’d thought it maybe wasn’t really him. Noel doesn’t know whether to turn to her or to spare her the sight of his face, give her the mercy of his back. His hand is in Liam’s suddenly, and when he turns to her Liam’s head is resting on his shoulder. On his naked skin.   
  
She’s looking at him, way too directly, it almost makes him cry. She looks defeated, it’s written all over her features, Noel can see it settling into the too early lines on her face. He can feel Liam turning his face away, averting his eyes and shielding them with the still sweat-sticky skin of Noel’s neck.   
  
“Noel”, she says. Still uses his name. “You wanted to come take a look at the kitchen table. ‘s still wobbly.” She speaks that voice from back then, it settles in Noel’s throat, makes a big lump. He can feel Liam shiver.   
  
“Yeah”, he says. He feels Liam’s heart beating against his side, or maybe it’s his own trying to tear through his chest. There’s blood in his mouth he has to swallow before he can say  _ I’m coming in a moment, alright?  _ Out comes, “sorry.” It’s quiet enough for an apology, but maybe not quiet enough for this apology. It hangs in the air for entirely too long, and Noel wishes he could get it back.   
  
His mam is still looking at him and Noel wonders how she does it. She’s used to seeing things, he thinks. And suddenly he feels like screaming. He’s sitting up, can feel Liam’s eyes boring into him from behind, and looks straight back at her.    
  
“That’s not…”, he begins and breaks off. He’s pointing between Liam and himself, then touches him. “I love him”, he says, and it’s simple and loud and clear enough to be the truth. Liam’s shivering under his hand, but Noel can’t turn around to him right now.    
  
Their mam’s face has turned unreadable, though not closed off. “Do you understand?”, Noel asks, reaches and stretches for her. She looks like she’s reaching for something, too. Her gaze falls on Liam and Noel can see it turn soft. She’s thinking, and Noel doesn’t even know what he’s hoping for, he just hangs on, keeps looking at her, keeps his hand on Liam’s leg.   
  
It’s a short nod that resolves the worst part of the tension in Noel’s neck. She looks at him again and it’s different this time. It’s not understanding - that’s not possible, not even Noel understands - but it’s something resembling quiet acceptance. She knows as well as Noel that there are things beyond what reason can grasp, and that if you can’t undo them, can’t stop them from existing, you’ll have to let them live, live with them.   
  
Liam’s hard gasp shakes life back into her and from one blink to the next Noel finds his mam standing in the door who hasn’t seen her two youngest sons kissing each other like they’re in love. “Will you come downstairs then and take a look at the table, Noel?”, she asks and Noel nods, grabs for his shirt and trousers.   
  
She’s out the door fast again, like always busily on her way to her next task. Liam’s on Noel’s back immediately, his mouth hot over Noel’s spine and neck, and he’s saying things that Noel’s too exhausted to understand now. He’ll ask for them later.


	18. Christmas Party

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> More about Eleanor the reindeer.  
> Set one year after the first Eleanor-chapter.

Liam’s in the living room impatiently rearranging the decorations, if Noel takes even one minute longer he’s going to drag the Christmas tree in the other, prettier corner of the room, and Noel should remember well how it ended the last time Liam tried to change the tree’s location - scattered glass all over the floor and Eleanor stomping all over the tree with excited hooves. In her defense, they hadn’t introduced her to the tree properly and Liam had told Noel that it was only natural for her to want to use the chance and get rid of a potential enemy. Kind of sweet actually. Noel hadn’t been all that convinced, but now he’s been out for longer than two hours with her so it can’t have tainted his opinion of her too badly.   
  
Liam’s actually got his hands fiddling with the branches when Noel and Eleanor burst in through the door. There’s a little lametta tangled in Eleanor’s antlers, and Liam detects some in Noel’s hair as well. He’s still high up on her back, even though they’d agreed that riding in the house wouldn’t be done anymore (well not that kind of riding anyway, ha. Maybe Liam has already drunk his fair bit of the Christmas punch.), and Liam wants to scold him for it, but Noel throws a bag at his head before he can say anything.  
  
“Fucking look at it”, Noel tells him and Liam can only now make out his blinding grin behind Eleanor’s antlers. He sounds like he’s found the best fucking thing in the world, and packed it right up in a dirty old plastic bag. Carefully Liam peers inside, then shoves his hand in and grabs around when he can’t make anything out. Out comes a big garland or something that consists of a load of big moose heads with Santa hats.  
  
“Brilliant, isn’t it? She loves it!”, Noel announces and finally slides off Eleanor’s back. He takes it out of Liam’s hands and wraps it around Eleanor’s neck. “There you go”, he says and pats her a little, “now you’re all done up for your party.” He turns to Liam and gives him a proud smile before he drops it at the sight of the big frown on Liam’s face.  
  
“What the fuck is that?”, Liam asks and gestures to Eleanor. She gives him an irritated look, but Liam ignores it for now, he’s busy glaring at Noel. The fucker didn’t even want to have a party in the first place, it took Liam ages of staring at him with big round eyes - well, sometimes with Eleanor substituting when he needed a break to get drunk, but the point is Noel had been strictly against a Christmas party, still been grumbling about it this morning and had only shut up when Liam had reminded him that it was actually meant as a kind of birthday party for Eleanor. They don’t know when her actual birthday is, she won’t say, so Liam chose the day of her arrival at her new home as her birthday.  
  
“Well, it’s a necklace with her face all over”, Noel says and points at the garland of moose around Eleanor’s neck like Liam’s stupid. “I found it and she loves it, look at her all pretty”, he adds and a little pride is back sparkling in his eyes.  
  
“They’re fucking moose”, Liam says sourly, though. “What do you take her for, she ain’t a fucking moose. She’s a reindeer, you cunt.” He wonders if he can get Eleanor to knock some sense back into Noel, but before he can sic her on him she’s at his side, gently nibbling at his parka and nudging him with one of her antlers, shaking her big neck so her necklace swings around a little. She _does_ seem to like it.  
  
“You’re stupid”, Liam tells her, a little less agitated now, and immediately apologises when she gives him a warning look.  
  
“I fucking told you so”, Noel says smugly, but Eleanor stomps her hoof and sniffs loudly in his direction, and Noel shuts up about it. “You got everything ready?”, he changes the topic, and Liam is fully appeased when Noel actually listens to him as he details his fight with all the little snowflakes he wanted hung up in the windows. In the end he’d got someone to do it for him, but it’s the effort that counts or something like that.  
  
Besides, Liam had to deal with a whole different kind of snow. Because maybe in a very, very weak moment Noel agreed that Eleanor deserves a _really_ _special_ birthday. So Liam’s done his best to get the best, and he’s pretty fucking sure that he’s succeeded. But that’s for later, as a proper Rock ‘n’ Roll reindeer Eleanor deserves the full party experience, he thinks.  
  
Later comes soon, though, Liam isn’t entirely sure how it’s happened, but the house is full of people, full of noise and shit music since Noel let Eleanor get her hooves in the business in a distracted moment. Her taste is quite niche, one might say politely if one wasn’t particularly interested in getting headbutted.  
  
She doesn’t seem to care much about that at the moment, though, and Liam kind of has to admit that the people don’t seem to mind her music that much. Although that might be because of how drunk everybody is already - or high, as Liam has to admit when Eleanor sends him a meaningful glance. They’re sitting or lying or something in between on the couch with a bunch of people crowded around, and Eleanor keeps blinking at the white traces on the expensive glass table that Noel had wanted to put away before everybody came but then couldn’t be arsed to.  
  
“Noel’s got it”, Liam tells her apologetically. He would’ve long got it out, which is probably why Noel put it in his pocket when Liam showed it to him in the first place.   
  
Eleanor nods impatiently, then points over to where a head of shiny brown hair is bobbing up and down in a crowd of people. So Liam starts calling for him and soon there’s a path between the couch and Noel, and Noel has to come over to get Liam to shut up.  
  
“Eleanor wants her present”, Liam tells him and makes to get it out of Noel’s pocket himself. He’s warm through his jeans and Liam starts to think about which room he’s going to try and trap Noel in for a quick snog or maybe even a shag if he’s in a good mood. But then his fingers find the little plastic bag and Eleanor makes an excited noise when he pulls it out.   
  
“You want to do the honours?”, Liam offers Noel, he’s feeling gracious today. And Noel accepts, he happily falls down on the couch with them, and Liam becomes a little suspicious that he’s had a little sample of Eleanors present before, but the bag still seems to be as full as when Noel took it off him.   
  
Noel takes the bag out of Liam’s hand and turns to take a look at Eleanor’s nostrils. He cuts out a really, _really_ fat line and Liam already wants to protest and get jealous before he remembers that it’s Eleanor’s birthday. Her eyes are huge with glee and she gives Noel a little kiss before she goes to hoover it all up. It’s really impressive, Liam almost asks her where she’s learned that from, but he knows how she reacts when she’s asked questions she doesn’t like answering, so he keeps his mouth shut and instead gets Noel to cut them some lines as well.  
  
Eleanor’s the life of the party. She lets Liam ride on her back, even when she goes to dance a little, and excitedly jumps from group to group, lets a few people even pet her a little. Liam decides he’d better get out of reach of her antlers for a while, though, when Eleanor enters a little headbanging contest.  
  
He finds Noel chatting to a bunch of arseholes and saves him by wordlessly pulling him away and into the bathroom where he does a rather efficient job sucking him off to make Noel stop spitting insults at him for interrupting him. It’s a really good thing Liam knows exactly how to suck the anger out of Noel because when they go back out there’s a second reindeer dancing in between the people.  
  
Noel looks like he’s about to get someone to throw her out, but Liam tugs at him and points at Eleanor. She’s looking with huge eyes and a dopey smile and inches closer carefully. Noel rolls his eyes when he sees and sighs exaggeratedly, but he doesn’t do anything to ruin Eleanor’s chances. He goes to get himself a drink, and then actually returns with one for Liam as well.  
  
Eleanor’s fast exchanging nose rubs with her new company, and Liam thinks he even sees her giving her a little kiss. He turns to grin at Noel and finds him smiling into his drink before he can put on a scowl and say, “we’re not getting a second reindeer, forget about that fucking right now.”


	19. Ice Skating (or not)

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Okay, so I couldn't come up with anything for 'ice skating' for the life of me, so I didn't, and instead wrote more insane things (not even Christmas-related sadly). I promise I'll be back on track with the next chapters though! 
> 
> Explicit.

Noel doesn’t know how he got to the point where he’s on the phone with Satan - maybe it’s shagging his brother, that seems like something that might get you a phone call from hell. He kind of has a weird feeling when his phone rings and then starts to smoke darkly, the ring tone is off as well. But Noel isn’t exactly up to date with the newest technology, so that could just be a new feature or something. He picks up, and then almost drops the phone when a pompous and far, far too loud voice announces that he is speaking to Satan himself.

He’s about to say something along the lines of _didn’t know Liam learned how to use a phone,_ but the voice is just a little too intimidating, so he keeps his mouth shut and just politely answers, “alright, this is Noel speaking. Would it be possible to turn down the volume a bit?”

It is possible, “oh, sorry, of course”, Satan replies a little less loudly and with a suddenly kind of velvety voice. He still sounds quite firm and a bit intimidating, though, when he demands, “so, Noel, I’ve been told you’ve been up to a few sins. Why don’t you go ahead and tell me about them a bit.”

His voice sounds so intriguing Noel almost starts to confess a whole lot of wrongdoings, and only just so catches himself and replies, “no idea what you’re talking about, mate. You can read all about the drugs in the papers, and surely giving Liam a slap or two is going to count as a good deed.”

Satan laughs, a bit too long, and then says all business-like, “shut the fuck up. You know what I’m talking about, tell me about your brother.”

He really knows how to do intimidating, Noel will have to remember that tone of voice for his own purposes. For now though he’ll have to try and throw Satan off his track. “What, about Liam? He’s a fucking cunt, should’ve rung him up instead of me”, he says and also rolls his eyes for good measure.

Satan exhales exasperatedly and Noel thinks he can feel hot breath on his ear. “Alright, Noel, I fucking know what’s up with you and your brother, please stop your little attempt to distract me. Now be nice and tell me about you.”

Noel almost gasps dumbly, but manages to contain it. He also doesn’t ask _and why the fuck haven’t you dragged me down to hell already then? _“So… What do you want to know?”, he asks slowly, because he begins to piece a few things together.__

____

____

“Well, Noel, that’s up to you really. I just hear that you like to shag your little brother, go on and tell me about that”, Satan says, and now his voice isn’t that intimidating anymore, but a bit breathy - there’s warm air blowing over Noel’s neck now - and deep in a way that makes a shiver run down Noel’s back in the good-shuddery way.

“Are you calling up everyone who shags their brother?”, he asks because, well, it’s good to know what kind of thing he’s getting himself into.

Satan’s laugh is dark and rich through the speaker and makes Noel clutch the phone a little tighter. “No”, he says, “only the ones I think probably look really good fucking their brother.”

Noel grins. So he was right. “Alright”, he says lightly and then makes his voice dark and velvety as well. “You want to know what I look like when I’ve got Liam on his knees for me? He’s fucking good with his mouth, he gets me hard so fast.”

“Does he?”, Satan says, and Noel thinks he can hear the suspicious rustling of clothes. “You like putting your cock in his mouth?”

“Yeah”, Noel answers and begins rustling with his own clothes. “Like fucking it, make him shut up for once. Looks so good with his mouth stuffed full of cock, _my_ cock. You know, he begged me for it since he was about 16. Came all over himself when I finally let him.”

Satan groans unashamedly, hot breath travelling over Noel’s neck. “You like fucking him, too, don’t you? How do you like to give it to him?”

A shiver runs down Noel’s spine and his cock jerks in his hand. “It’s good from behind, shoving his face in the pillow. He likes it rough, you have to fuck him until he’s screaming. He’ll beg to be filled up if you’re doing it right.”

“And you do it right?”, Satan asks breathlessly, “you know how to fuck your brother?”

Noel squeezes himself hard as he nods and tells Satan, “I do. Could make him come just with my fingers while he’s begging for my cock, know exactly where to touch him.”

“You take care of him, yeah?”, Satan says, sounding a little strangled, and then continues, “and why do you fuck him, Noel? You love him, don’t you?” His voice is barely more than a dark groan and Noel is confused for a moment, he didn’t take Satan for someone to get turned on by love. But then again, that’s what’s making Noel’s life so fucking hard most of the time, so maybe that’s what Satan gets off on. 

Still, that’s none of Satan’s business. “How’s that relevant?”, Noel asks sharply and almost takes his hand off his cock. Almost. It just feels too good.

“Oh, that’s very relevant, Noel”, Satan says and Noel can hear the mean pitch of his voice, he knows it well enough from his own. “Go on, tell me how much you love your brother. You’re in love with him, aren’t you?”

Noel doesn’t know if it’s Satan using some kind of hell powers on him, or if it’s just the overwhelming potential of the opportunity of finally being able to speak to someone about it, but he starts talking. “Yeah, I am, alright? He’s… He’s my brother. And he’s mine and I love him. There you have it, I’m in love with him.”

Satan’s hot breath is all over him, and Noel almost doesn’t feel how fast he’s stroking himself until Satan’s deep voice makes him realise how close he is already. “Now that wasn’t too hard, was it, Noel? You know, you look really fucking fit when you’re fucking him face to face, staring into his eyes, almost crying when you come inside him.”

Noel almost throws down the phone, but instead he comes hard all over himself at the realisation that Satan’s apparently able to see everything they do (or maybe only their sins?). He’s groaning loudly before he can remember to stay quiet and down the line he can hear Satan following suit, coming with a deep grown.

“Thank you, Noel, that was brilliant”, Satan says and chuckles when Noel answers, “yeah, fuck right off.” 

Noel’s still shivering in his shaky afterglow when the line goes dead with a loud bang and burns the phone right in Noel’s hand until it’s nothing but black ashes. What a cunt.


	20. Blindfold Surprise

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Explicit

Noel is lying on the bed in Liam’s hotel room, stretched out long and golden under the light of the lamp. Liam carefully watches the way his chest rises and falls, how his hand draws slow circles on his naked thigh, not going near his cock even though it’s standing up hard and flushed. He looks completely relaxed, like he’s enjoying himself, nothing like the incensed little man who nearly slapped Liam when he suggested Noel might like having Liam’s scarf tied over his eyes.   
  
Liam had heard about how it made things a lot more intense, and at first he’d thought he’d like to have Noel do it to him - he still would, that sounds fucking top - but then he’d thought about how it’d be to have Noel unable to see what Liam was doing to him, and had found that that seemed quite appealing.    
  
It’d taken him a whole lot of nagging and prodding and making pretty eyes at Noel, but finally he’d given in and laid down on Liam’s bed where he’d stared at him until Liam had gotten the hint and then to work undressing Noel before he carefully covered his eyes with his scarf.    
  
Now Liam has to think about what he wants to do, though. He can’t let Noel and his completely available naked body overwhelm him and cloud his brain over, this is something he has to handle very carefully. So he begins to strip off his clothes as well to buy himself some time and give Noel something to listen to. He’s still serenely stroking his own thigh, almost like Liam isn’t there, but his cock twitches when Liam loudly gets rid of his trousers, and Liam knows the way his breathing’s going a little heavier.   
  
It’s tempting to just stretch out along Noel’s body and let his instincts of  _ closer  _ and  _ more  _ take over, but Liam manages to only let his knees bump into Noel’s legs and a few fingertips press into his side when he climbs up on the bed. And that’s definitely worth it because Noel’s legs twitch and spread a little and Liam sees goose bumps rising up on his arms.    
  
He has a little taste of Noel. Bends down and wraps his lips around the head of Noel’s cock and sucks as well as he knows to while he listens to Noel’s sudden groans. Liam lets him thrust up into his mouth a couple of times, go real deep, before he slides off and touches Noel’s hips to make him stop lifting them.   
  
Noel shivers when Liam kisses his nipples, and then jerks a little when he bites them a bit. He puffs out a surprised breath at Liam straddling his chest, and his hands come up to push at Liam’s thighs.    
  
“The fuck are you doing?”, he huffs, and Liam laughs and inches higher up, rubs his cock in Noel’s face.   
  
“Open up, alright?”, is all he answers as he paints Noel’s lips shiny with the tip of his cock. Noel’s fingers dig hard and painfully into the soft flesh of Liam’s thighs, but he doesn’t make a real attempt to shove Liam off him, so Liam figures he can go on.   
  
He lets his cock slap against Noel’s cheek, then brings it back to Noel’s mouth and nudges it against his lips. They’re really soft, even when Noel pouts in an annoyed way, and Liam thinks it might help if he gave him some more reason to play along.   
  
“C’mon, Noel, ‘m just gonna come all over your face instead”, he says, and can almost see the way Noel must be rolling his eyes under Liam’s scarf.    
  
It does seem to work, though, Noel’s lips become even softer and finally Liam’s cock slides past them and inside his mouth.   
  
“No biting, alright?”, Liam says, because with Noel you probably have to. He can’t make out Noel’s exact answer around Liam’s cock in his mouth, but the tone sounds a little mean. It doesn’t matter, though, he’s started to suck Liam in this stars-exploding-behind-eyelids kind of way, and doesn’t protest when Liam starts to fuck into his mouth a little, go deeper and make him gag a bit.   
  
It doesn’t take long until Liam’s close, he has to hold on to Noel’s hair, and his hips are moving all on their own. He doesn’t give Noel a warning - by now he should be able to tell when Liam’s about to come - and just comes inside his mouth wishing he could see Noel’s eyes. Fucking blindfold.   
  
Noel keeps swallowing around him until he’s finished, but then begins to push at Liam for real, so Liam only stays on him for a few more extended moments before he slides his cock out of Noel’s mouth and rolls off him. He wipes Noel’s mouth clean with his fingers, kisses him, then wraps his hand around Noel’s cock to bring him off, too.


	21. Transformation

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Can you believe this was about 300 mostly chaste words until I decided that of course Santa Noel requires smut? This calendar really seems to make me more and more unhinged with every chapter
> 
> Explicit

“But what do you need me for?”, Noel hears Liam whine from behind the pile of presents, “that’s not my fucking problem, is it? Don’t you get one of them little elves or something?” Noel sighs as he throws another present behind him in the vague direction of his sleigh. “Apparently not”, he says, somewhat patiently, “and you’re the closest thing to a little fella in weird clothes I could find, so if you could just fucking get on with it, so I don’t have to break my neck trying to jump through chimneys all across the fucking globe on time.”   
  
There’s an amused huff on the other side of the pile. “Should be your own elf if you’re looking for a little fella”, Liam says and Noel is so fucking close to beating him up with the doll he’s holding, but he supposes that’s not the right behaviour for the new Santa Claus.    
  
Of course it had hit  _ him _ . With that name, thank you, mam, really. Destined to be Father Christmas, even Liam had laughed and told him that it suited him. Well, before he’d started calling him an elf that is, but he’d rubbed his fingers through Noel’s new beard and tugged at his soft new hat and then asked what present Noel was going to bring him in a voice that would’ve sent him straight to the list of naughty children if Noel hadn’t been way too intrigued by it.   
  
“Just shut up and get this over with, alright?”, he says and tries to sound a little more civil. “Maybe we’ll still have some time left before I’m off on this suicide mission”, he adds and peeks over the pile between them to give Liam a look heavy with a promise. It has Liam’s eyebrows jump up and his eyes go wide with that hopeful, excited look that he does better than any child standing in front of the Christmas tree. “Alright then”, he says suddenly very cheerfully, “let’s get your sleigh packed then, Santa.”   
  
  
  
Wrapping about two billion presents and trying to fit them all in the back of a sleigh had seemed like a whole fucking lot of work right until Noel also had to hand-deliver them via chimney-hopping. He doesn’t know how he didn’t just end up sprawled out dead between presents under a Christmas tree somewhere between the third and fourth country he jumped through, but he’s made it back home safely, even with about thirty seconds to spare before Liam would’ve lost his patience and pressed the button under Noel’s new armchair that would teleport Noel and his sleigh straight back home.   
  
Noel contemplates getting one of his reindeers to drag Liam out from under the armchair but then just laughs as Liam jerks up hard and hits his head, startled by Noel’s voice.    
  
“Ow, fucker”, Liam complains, rubbing his head as he comes up. To Noel’s satisfaction he shuts up fast, though, when he finds Noel with his red jacket already half undone, leaving half his chest bare and a little sweaty from the exertion of climbing all around the world. Liam’s on him fast, trying to kiss Noel and slip his hands into his jacket, and it takes almost all of Noel’s leftover strength to keep him away at an arm’s length so he can finally get to his armchair and sink into it to stretch his limbs out.   
  
The little moment of relaxation doesn’t last long, though, Noel should’ve expected a lap full of Liam as soon as he sat down in a place easy to get trapped in. Liam’s changed his strategy, though, he’s not licking Noel’s neck or trying to suck on his nipples, he just stares at Noel. Little creep. Little creep with really pretty fluttering lashes. And his mouth, oh. His lips look so red already, flushed and puffy, and Noel wants to touch them.   
  
He doesn’t have to, Liam lets them brush against his ear all on his own when he leans in and says with an exaggeratedly sugary voice, “so what  _ did  _ you get me for Christmas? Been good, haven’t I?”   
  
He really hasn’t been good, he really isn’t good right now, but Noel’s hand is already in his hair pulling his head back so Liam has to look at him again. “Yeah? You’ve been a good boy? What do you want for Christmas then?”, Noel asks a little breathlessly and slips his hand under Liam’s shirt to feel along his hip.   
  
“You fucking know what I want”, Liam replies impatiently and manages to get the rest of Noel’s jacket open. He slides a little closer and touches Noel’s cock through his trousers. “Fucking pervert”, he says as he rubs his hand over it.   
  
“Yeah”, Noel agrees and undoes the button of Liam’s trousers. He’s so hard already, the little slag, and hot in Noel’s hand when he gets him out. “Not sure good boys get this hard in Santa’s lap, do they?”, he mumbles as he begins to stroke Liam.   
  
“No, they just get a semi”, Liam says knowingly. “I’m special, me, goes fully hard. You like it?”   
  
“Do I like it? You’re being put on the naughty list right as we speak”, Noel answers and pushes his thumb into Liam’s slit, plays with the precome leaking out. God, maybe he should taste him. “Won’t get any presents next year.”   
  
“Fucking shame”, Liam says and manages to turn his mouth down in a pout even though he’s already shivering with pleasure. He pushes his cock up into Noel’s hand, leans in and kisses Noel and breaks away right when Noel’s just gotten into it. His mouth goes to Noel’s ear instead.  _ “You _ won’t get my cock if I don’t get my presents. How’s that sound?”   
  
Noel squeezes him hard until Liam hisses indignantly with pain. His cock twitches between Noel’s fingers anyway. “You wouldn’t manage to keep it in your pants if every kid’s present on the entire world depended on it”, Noel answers him unaffectedly. His hand speeds up on Liam’s cock, he can see Liam needs it faster by the way his hand’s twitching where he’s put it on Noel’s chest.   
  
“And you wouldn’t manage to keep your hands off it if your fucking life depended on it”, Liam shoots back and puts his nose into Noel’s beard. He rubs it along his jaw, tries to bite a little, and Noel feels his own cock twitch in his trousers.   
  
“Yeah, yeah, whatever”, Noel says and twists his hand around Liam’s cock in this way Liam really likes. “You gonna come or what?”   
  
“You want your present?”, Liam grins cockily at him, and Noel doesn’t know how he does it when he’s also flushed all over and really twitchy and shaky, his hands desperately gripping Noel.   
  
Noel rolls his eyes, but Liam’s eyebrows draw together, he’s concentrating, his features slipping into impatient hunger and then bliss, and God, Noel does want it. He gets it with three or four more strokes, Liam’s coming all over his chest, a little on his jacket, some up to Noel’s beard.   
  
“There you go”, he says when he’s spent and slumps over and into Noel. “Merry Christmas. Until next year, yeah?”   
  
Noel can only incredulously tug at his hair. “Until next year? Fucking get me off, you cunt. Your mouth, right about now.”   
  
“Hope you like _ your  _ present, yeah?”, he says later when he pulls out of Liam’s mouth to come all over his face.


	22. Kid Fic

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This is set about three to four years after the Immaculate Conception chapter (and in some kind of AU where it's possible for them to live and raise a kid together...)

Christmas is nearing, outside the world is becoming slower and quieter, snow over problems and busy people. Noel takes in a breath of silence when he steps outside in the back garden and lets the cold creep into his feet. It’s a nice change from the hot noises inside, the kid laughing and screaming and apparently hunting Liam for sport, and Liam loudly tumbling over furniture in a desperate attempt to save his life. He’s having the time of his life, the fucker.   
  
Noel is about to fumble for a well-deserved cigarette when the door behind him opens and Liam looks like he’s about to hurl their daughter at Noel when he turns around. She’s screeching like a banshee and clawing her little hands into Liam’s parka, her baby face pulled wide in a mischievous smile Noel also knows from almost thirty years ago.   
  
“You wanna tackle daddy?”, Liam asks her, just loud enough for Noel to hear and be at his side immediately to rip their daughter out of his arms. She cackles and pulls his hair, and Noel shoots Liam an angry glare. He could’ve sworn he heard Liam teach her something like that a few days ago before bedtime.    
  
“Fuck off”, he tells Liam and tilts their daughter a little so she’s in hair pulling distance to him. Of course she doesn’t do anything, though, suddenly an innocent lamb in Noel’s arms. “Really?”, he asks her and hides a grin in the collar of his coat when she shrugs in an annoyed way Noel thinks he can pride himself on being the inspiration for.   
  
“You wanted to taste the snow, right?”, Liam asks her and throws Noel a glance. “She won’t believe me it don’t taste nice. Gotta let her make up her own mind, yeah?” There’s a grin twitching on his lips that makes Noel want to sternly tell him he can’t just use their daughter as a source of entertainment but also makes him want to kiss him, really hard, so Noel just shrugs as well.   
  
“Of course”, he says dryly but does turn their daughter in his arms so he can hold her close to the bush nearby that holds lots of snow on its branches. “Go on, lick some up”, he tells her and steps a bit closer to the bush so she can easily stick her face into the snow.    
  
She squeaks a bit and comes back up with snow in her eyebrows and nose that Liam wipes away fast. Noel’s a little impressed by the amount of time she keeps it in her mouth until she spits out a clump of ice and tells them in decided words that she definitely isn’t mad for the taste of snow or rather just for how  _ fucking cold  _ it is.   
  
Liam seems to be trying hard to stifle his laughter, but of course doesn’t do the best job of it and soon has their daughter glaring at him. She looks like she’d be up for pulling his hair now and Noel shortly considers giving her the opportunity to before he sees how prettily it’s framing Liam’s face today and he puts her down on the ground instead, telling her to go play a bit with the evil snow.   
  
“Your dad wants to talk to me about something, don’t do anything stupid, alright?”, he says sternly while she’s long off, diving headfirst into a heap of snow again. Liam’s smiling brightly at him when Noel turns back to him and steps as close as their thick coats will allow, his hand sliding into Liam’s pocket and between his fingers there.


	23. Last Minute Preparations

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Continuation of the Christmas Music Chapter (Liam's performance on Jonathan Ross). I've stolen a bit of [quietwandering's](https://archiveofourown.org/users/quietwandering/pseuds/quietwandering) idea for it, thank you for that!
> 
> Mature

Liam isn’t really one for stress, but trying to find a picture of his brother to wank to, come on and send to said brother in time for a really  _ Merry Christmas  _ before his own family comes over is really fucking stressful. He could’ve done it days ago, weeks even, because that cunt had sent the fucking picture when not even advent had started yet, but somehow Liam’s needed until this very second to decide what he’s going to do in response.   
  
It’s been a weirdly quiet month, Liam hasn’t known how to act. Just because...because that’s the first time in over a decade now that Noel’s acknowledged what used to happen between them. And Liam thinks he’s allowed to be a little thrown off by that. It’s  _ his _ thing to remind Noel that he used to like to touch (kiss, fuck) Liam way too much, and it’s Liam’s job to deal with the weeks, months-long silence following that before Noel will begrudgingly wish him a happy birthday after Liam’s complained to their mam long enough about how uncivil Noel is being.   
  
But now Noel’s said it. Well, not said. But Liam thinks he knows what a picture of his own face covered in Noel’s come means. Noel’s admitted he still thinks of Liam that way, fuck, that he still touches himself to thinking of Liam that way, and Liam doesn’t know where to go with that. Like, he’s known it. Of course he’s known, never doubted it for one second, but that isn’t the point. Noel  _ wants  _ him to know, and Liam hasn’t been sure if it’s also an invitation. He’s decided it is one now, though, and also that he’s going to accept it.   
  
There must be a little stack of pictures somewhere in the room designated as his office but Liam’s not really sure where. He  _ isn’t  _ fucking obsessed with Noel after all, and also, if he needs to take a look at a photo there’s the internet, innit? But he knows there’s this one picture somewhere, stored away between a whole lot of other old photos, and he’d really like to have it right now.    
  
He does find it finally after fucking minutes of banging cupboards open and closed again. It’s way too close to the top of the stack, Noel would scold him, but unlike some wives Debbie doesn’t just snoop through his stuff, so it’d also be fucking alright if Liam wanted to frame it and put it on the desk. Anyway, he takes it and settles into the chair at the desk. Well, it’s fucking uncomfortable so he needs some time to grapple with it until it stops viciously digging into his back.   
  
He’s got about half an hour left until Debbie said she’d be back, which should be long enough. Liam gets his cock out, and then looks at the picture. There’s Noel, his face and upper body, naked up to the line where his happy trail turns into actual pubes. He’s spread out on a bed - Liam’s bed, the last time he was there, just about two fucking weeks before Paris - one hand is resting on his stomach, the other on the pillow under his head. His body is flushed a light shade of pink, traces of sweat lighting his skin up, he looks content, well-fucked. Liam still remembers how long his jaw hurt after sucking Noel off so good he actually let him take a picture.   
  
His eyes hang on to Noel’s mouth when he begins to grope himself into hardness. It doesn’t take long, he’s been aroused ever since he opened Noel’s text again and took another look at himself covered in his brother’s come, and seeing Noel’s mouth half open now, looking like he’d like to kiss Liam, to suck his cock, gets him there fast.   
  
Liam looks over Noel’s stomach and chest, remembers how he used to slide his hands over the warm skin there and make Noel arch into him and pull him closer. He’d always liked being touched excessively, after he’d made Liam wait and beg for it, that is. And he’d felt good, turned that desperate pull in Liam’s stomach into hot tension that felt like it could be relieved if Noel would just come a little closer even.   
  
Liam’s cock twitches in his fast stroking hand when his eyes find Noel’s neck, long and curved back, looking like pure sex. Liam’s always loved how soft it looked when you took a closer look, how breakable the skin felt under Liam’s mouth. It’d almost felt like everything was going to be fine as long as Noel still let Liam put his teeth so close to his aorta. It hadn’t been, but Liam still gets off on (the memory of) the feeling of sucking Noel’s fluttering pulse right into his mouth.   
  
He’s close already when his eyes go back to Noel’s stomach, lower this time, almost out of the frame where Noel’s body begins to shape down towards his cock. Liam’s spent hours with his face pressed into Noel right there, too tired or out of it to move or be on his own, and Noel’s hand in his hair pushing Liam further into himself way too tempting to trade for something else. Liam keeps staring at that spot on Noel’s body, it has his hand going weak for a second and then stumbling hastily around his cock, twitching with nerves and pleasure.   
  
It only takes Liam a few more tugs and pulls until he finally comes - still fifteen minutes to spare until he’s got to look like someone who doesn’t give his brother an orgasm as a Christmas present. He gets just enough on the picture that Noel can still see which version of him exactly got Liam off. It looks like a right work of art, Liam thinks, Noel’s going to love it, the pervert.   
  
He takes a picture, gets the lighting right and everything, and sends it to Noel.  _ That alright for a present?  _ he adds, feeling an excited tingle in his stomach. Anything seems possible again.


	24. Unwrapping ('cause you're the only god that I will ever need)

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'd like to think that these are the same Noel and Liam as in the Meeting the Family chapter.
> 
> Mature

Liam is a thin long roll inside his thin old blanket on his bed. Noel can see the bumps of his shoulders standing out, his bony arse pushing against the fabric. His face is turned to the wall, and he might be in an angry sleep if Noel couldn’t hear his fast breathing moving the air in their room in tense circles until Noel feels like he’s going dizzy.   
  
It’s one of those evenings where Liam’s too knackered to go out, bones tired with exhaustion from rattling with anger all day, and he has to look for a little warmth that’ll melt them back together with his body and keep them from jumping out. He doesn’t look warm, though, his breathing’s way too shivery, Noel thinks, and the sharp folds of his blanket look cold.  
  
Noel closes the door behind himself and keeps standing there on the hard floor between their beds, eyes locked on his brother. He’s quiet, but he knows Liam’s heard him, can see his thoughts turning to Noel through the back of his skull. There’s a little sigh that draws Noel closer, makes him kneel next to Liam’s bed and put his hand on the part of the blanket that covers Liam’s shoulder.  
  
He can feel how Liam breathes in, long, his body full of air, almost making him burst at the seams until he exhales heavily, and Noel’s hand almost slips off his shoulder as Liam sinks back deeply into himself. He lets his shoulder rise up to catch Noel’s hand from slipping, though, and Noel pushes down hard on it, uses it as leverage to turn Liam over onto his back.  
  
Liam’s head falls towards him, loosely rolling on his long neck until his eyes are boring right into Noel’s. His face is dark, full of shadows, and Noel wants to pull him up so the lamp can brush them away. He is so quiet, but it feels like his silence is pulling Noel in.   
  
He rubs his hand over Liam’s shoulder, a little too fast, and Liam starts to breathe a little too fast, too, his eyes staying fixated on Noel.  
  
The tips of Noel’s fingers slip under the blanket and brush over Liam’s skin there.   
  
He really is cold, feels like he’s made of snow, and Noel thinks he needs to find the warmth in Liam’s body to see there’s still his hot-blooded brother under the blanket. His hand feels for the opening of Liam’s blanket where the seams end, and begins to pull. Liam doesn’t stop him, he’s just staring at Noel which would be weird and unsettling anywhere else, but isn’t right here with Noel kneeling silently beside his bed.   
  
Noel’s hand finds its way inside Liam’s little cocoon and has him exhaling in relief when he finds sweaty-hot skin on Liam’s chest. He strokes his fingers around a little, curls one or two of Liam’s hairs around one, and then carefully slides the blanket off Liam. The kid shivers when it falls away and lays him bare to the room and Noel’s eyes. His arms twitch like they want to draw in and wrap around his body, but he keeps them spread out the way they’ve fallen free of the blanket.  
  
He looks so weird, Noel thinks, lying on top of a blanket in bed with his upper body bare, but jeans and socks still on, and this look on his face, God. He looks like he’s patiently waiting for something to happen, serenely even, Noel gets the weird image of the Virgin Mary sitting silently in prayer.   
  
His hand is back on Liam’s chest, fingers spread out flat against it, and it feels like maybe _he_ is praying: there’s tension in the silence, waiting for an answer that might never come.   
  
He asks again, presses his hand down harder on Liam’s chest, and then the sky opens up and Liam is fire curling into Noel. He’s up against him, hands pulling at Noel’s shirt and his mouth is on Noel’s, hard and open wide, and Noel finds himself panting suddenly, surging forward, trying for Liam’s tongue.  
  
His knees are hurting on the floor, but Liam gets him up on his bed, and his mattress is cloudy-soft, eases the pain away. They’re tangled into each other, limbs trying to fit and melt together, follow their mouths suit. Noel can hear Liam gasping and panting, can feel it right inside himself, it’s like he’s drinking each of Liam’s breaths heavy from his lips.   
  
There are words happening in Noel’s throat then, pushing up and finally out. “Liam.” Of course, his name. “D’you want…?”   
  
Liam’s nodding, groaning, cold hands tugging at Noel. And Noel’s sliding down, down, until he finds Liam’s belt instead of soft skin. He gets to work, rips and tugs and slides open. Liam lifts his hips up to him, and pulling off his jeans becomes a lot easier. It makes Noel’s hands pause for a moment, has him looking down at the shimmer of pubes under Liam’s waistband, teasing what he’s going to find if he goes further.   
  
He’s unwrapping his brother like a fucking Christmas present, Noel thinks, like a gift someone’s paid a fortune and a half for so he can open and own it.  
  
He takes Liam’s dick in his hand when he’s done unwrapping and found his gift waiting and aching for him. Liam’s staring down at him again, eyes so wide and dark with a lot of unrecognisable things Noel knows from inside of his own chest. The kid’s breathing quickly with arousal, and the muscles in his stomach jump when Noel squeezes his hand tightly around him and strokes him a couple of times.  
  
When he leans down to press a kiss to the tip of his cock Liam’s entire body shudders. Noel takes him in his mouth slowly, savours it as Liam fills him out. He just lets him rest inside his mouth for a little while, thinks of how you’re supposed to let the Body of Christ dissolve on your tongue, not chew Him, and wonders if it’d be alright to help Him melt into you by pressing your tongue up against Him, suck on Him and hollow your cheeks, make a home for Him inside of you. Liam seems to like it.  
  
He’s pulling Noel’s hair, thrusting up into him, not melting one bit but getting harder, and Noel greedily swallows him down. He takes it all when Liam comes in his mouth, closes his eyes, and shivers when he opens them back up into Liam’s.   
  
Liam’s arms are warm around him when Noel puts his face into the crook of his neck and rubs himself against Liam’s thigh until he comes with a long shudder.  



	25. Christmas Day

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> And here's the last chapter! I enjoyed doing this calendar so much and I'm really really grateful for everyone who took the time to comment, I appreciate it a lot!!

Noel hates Christmas. It’s the wrong kind of loud and bright, mostly full of the wrong kind of spirits, a bunch of idiots thinking if they just spend enough money and pretend to not hate one another for a few hours, it’ll get them world peace. Or something like that.    
  
Christmas brings memories.   
  
Noel has a lot of memories, even with the years that are either blank and black or just a blurry swirl of loud guitars and aching noses. And his brother’s mouth - wrapped around a microphone, a cigarette, his cock.    
  
Usually he’s excellent with having memories, remembering the good, glorious ones fondly, with pride, making the boring ones into good stories or discarding them, and letting the ugly ones wash away with a bottle of vodka. At Christmas, though, they don’t seem to be just memories. The lights, the smells, the atmosphere of old tradition makes the air heavier and stickier around him, doesn’t let them flow away easily, but makes him see them in 3D, almost tangible.   
  
It gets worse with the years going by, it gets worse with time as his memories should fade to black and white, to crumpled old photos instead of blockbuster films. They’re powered by melancholy, the strong flavour of  _ oh, if just one more time…, _ and that’s the fucking worst part of it.   
  
Noel wouldn’t have one problem with his brain showing him Liam, 17 and flushed with nervousness about holding Noel’s cock in his hand, or Liam, 19 and out of breath after Noel made him suck him off before he agreed to join his band, or Liam, 37 and looking heart-broken after Noel slid out of him and his bed, if it were just that and not the sinking feeling of having  _ lost  _ something.    
  
It’s so profound, heart-wrenching, and heavy in his gut that he just knows wine or vodka or whatever he fancies at that time won’t even flush away the lightest shade of it as soon as the first trace of Christmas has crept in through the door. He’ll start dreaming, and then thinking, type out messages, then call his mam.    
  
He’d even called Paul one time, fist clenched, wondering if Liam had told him. He’d been obsessed with that idea for a while, feverishly thought out all the ways that could’ve led Liam to telling him. But Paul hadn’t let anything of that sort slip, and Noel finally had begrudgingly admitted to himself that Liam would keep his mouth shut.    
  
At first it had been a relief when Liam had started writing his own songs. Begging him to come back, reminding him of what used to be, laying out trails and traps for Noel, and it’d made that one Christmas a slightly more peaceful affair.  _ But I’ve still got him, you see,  _ he’d been able to tell the screaming in his stomach,  _ of course he’s still there, ready for me to take whenever.  _   
  
That hadn’t lasted long. Things had been said that made it seem like the taking wouldn’t be so easy after all. It was like Liam had hidden in a place where he should know Noel wasn’t going to go. Of course there’d still been the whining and moaning, thinly disguised begging, and there still is, but Noel doesn’t think it weighs enough. It feels hollow, like a fucking running gag with his twitter idiots or whoever else decides to buy shit straight from his mouth.   
  
It taints the memories with bitterness. It makes the taste in Noel’s mouth dark and ugly when he sees Liam’s carefree face tilted up to him with a sort of wild love after they went to number one for the first time. It makes Noel dark and bitter, and it lasts longer than Christmas day.   
  
He still gets Liam’s texts. It’s not his fault if his mam caves every time and gives Liam his new number. Noel can’t also cut off his mam, can he? Liam would like that maybe.  _ Cruel Noel won’t even speak to mam ‘cause he’s such a cunt.  _   
Noel still calls his mam, and out of habit he’ll ask after him. He can’t hide the anger in his voice, though, and he’s gotten used to the worried, then exhausted, then angry tone of her voice. Depends on the weekday.   
  
_ Just call him for Christmas, Noel. You call Paul, he’s your brother as well. Just for Christmas, alright?  _ It isn’t alright, and Noel isn’t going to call him. He’s going to sit on the sofa and quietly get drunk while his kids start to destroy their new toys, and maybe he’s going to record her a video, so she can see, too. But that’s got to be it, Liam can get one of his fanboys to call him if he so desperately needs someone to tell him he’s still got it, wish him merry Christmas, whatever.   
  
Having your phone in your reach when you’re off your tits isn’t good, Noel’s learned that a few times. Still, he’s able to find it on the sofa next to him when he hears it ring and can also pick up with wine-clumsy fingers.    
  
He’s slurring a little, but “hello?” comes out easily. There’s a few indistinguishable noises coming from the other end and then a deep breath.   
  
“You drunk?”, a voice asks.  _ That  _ voice asks.  _ Liam, oh.  _   
  
“Mam said you would call”, Liam says, “I told her you wouldn’t, but she wasn’t having it, told me I’d see, alright.” He pauses and Noel hears himself breathing like he’s going to say something, but he has no idea what. He’s processing, a little slowly, thoughts trying to connect in an ocean of alcohol.   
  
“You really weren’t going to, though, were you?”, Liam asks and Noel can’t identify what the emotion behind it is -  _ if  _ there’s any emotion. “Thought I’d spare you her temper and call you so you can tell her you spoke to me, yeah?”   
  
_ God, fuck. _ What’s Noel supposed to say? And what did Liam say? Something about their mam, yeah?   
  
“Have you called her yet?”, Noel asks, taking a fragment of a script from years ago when he had to remind Liam in between two lines of coke that it was Sunday and he needed to tell her about how their last gig went or how great Paris looked in the sun (if one could bear to look at it without shades keeping the cruel reality of a heavy hangover out).   
  
“Course, how d’you think I know she thinks you’re going to call me?” Liam doesn’t sound too confused, remembers how scattered Noel’s mind becomes when he’s drunk. But oh, this time Noel understands what he’s saying.   
  
“That woman”, he says incredulously. “What’s she thinking?” He feels surprisingly quiet, though, isn’t sure himself why he isn’t saying more, cursing at Liam or his mam, but his brain simply seems to not be in the mood to supply him with enough anger to get creative. He’s fucking out of it. Besides, Liam’s voice sounds like...like back then, Noel supposes. Not hollow, definitely not, he’s got the rich sound of real desire, almost real desperation that still immediately makes its way into Noel’s heart, makes it pump Noel’s blood faster through his veins.   
  
“She sounded hopeful, you know?”, Liam says thoughtfully, but Noel can hear he’s also a little scared. This is going differently from how he thought.    
  
“Did she?”, Noel says, somehow not angry. God, why is he entertaining this?    
  
“Yeah”, Liam says, fast like when he used to need to answer Noel’s questions before he’d even asked them, just to… be good, Noel supposes, to be there with him, better than anybody else. Maybe that’s why he’s entertaining this.   
  
“Don’t know what you said to her, but she was proper convinced”, Liam tells him, and for some reason it makes Noel’s heart beat faster.   
  
“Hmm”, he says like he agrees - with whatever. “Well, I wasn’t going to call you”, he adds matter-of-factly.    
  
“Still talking to me now, though, aren’t you?”, Liam shoots back, and Noel can hear how he swallows his  _ why,  _ he knows not to shatter Noel’s friendliness by asking for the reason.   
  
“Right”, Noel says, “should probably hang up, yeah?”   
  
“Fucking should - no, you shouldn’t!” Liam’s voice finally gets restless, a bit of a scared edge to it, and  _ ahh, it makes Noel grin.  _ There’s sudden, insistent pain in his leg at once, though, and when he looks down, there’s his youngest son fucking trying to break his shin by repeatedly hitting his newest toy against it. He’s grinning up at Noel, and Noel doesn’t dare to try and imagine what his evil little mind is going to come up with next.   
  
“Ahh, Liam”, he says, and stumbles over his name a little. He’d like to say it again, let the taste sink into his tongue. “Liam, I gotta hang up for real, the kid’s going insane. I’ll call you back, alright?”   
  
He hangs up fast and grabs his son, presses his arms against his sides, so he can only laugh and scream and thrash about in Noel’s arms without posing a real threat to Noel’s life.   
  
_ Fuck,  _ what did he just say to Liam? He isn’t going to call him back, he isn’t. That was a joke. And end of it.    
  
Liam picks up after the first ring.


End file.
